Review Summary: I'd hoped for more
Two years after its initial offering, ten56 presents its follow-up to a promising debut, hopefully switching up the vein of monotony it would be vindicated to say it resides in. We're still here barely breathing in the pits of sound this band firmly resides in. Lyrically, we're all lost in this vocalist who seems to only wish to communicate in trap gutterals or just straight up black furnace vocals. Things get a little interesting when production takes the vocals to alien/demon levels that would be impossible to actually perform live. Everything seems to rely on the vocalist to give any dimension to the music, a step I feel is in the wrong direction, as we've already heard this in the last release. The hard-hitting rhythmic sections are great when they take center stage, but between the frequent stops and noise gates, I lose the entire point of the song. What the *** is going on here?
The reason this album takes a step backwards for me, is in the lack of direction these 7 tracks have. Traumadoll seems to have the most ambitious direction when it comes to the intensity this band seems to want to create, yet the rest of the album feels lazy in comparison. I'm all for some pissed off music but these guys seem to just be another one-note-pony at this point.
I'll still give credit where it's due; this album still scratches some itches I need scratched as an audiophile, but where is this going? I would personally love to see this band take more risks, but so far, I'm not holding my breath.
