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Remix albums are the little annoyances of the music world. Compilations of various different artists using electronics to mess around with an artists songs which serve no real purpose other than to bring the band and the label some more money.
Bring Me the Horizon at the very least bundled their collection of shoddy remixes with a copy of the original album. 'Stepped Up and Scratched' on the other hand is a stand-alone release.
I really just don't get dubstep. Sure, it's the new craze amongst the teen demographic (which, just to note, I fall in to), but I really just don't get it. It's the lowest form of electronic music possible. There's no real skill to make it, and not a great lot of pleasure to gain from it. It's just a mash-up of low wobble basses and high-pitched electronic squeals. The songs are never any good, the kids just like it because of how "filthy" it is.
And I suppose "filthy" is the right word, as it's a genre that leaves a great, big, nasty stain on the world of music. And Asking Alexandria jump on the bandwagon with their latest CD 'Stepped Up and Scratched', bringing together a whole bunch of dubstep remixes for your, and I use the term loosely, enjoyment. And that immediately presents the first problem of this album: it's all dubstep. For a remix album, it would have been nice to see a bit of diversity - throw some trance in there, maybe sprinkle some house over there - but 'Stepped Up and Scratched' is entirely dubstep, with no evident reason other than sheer laziness.
It's very difficult to find an enjoyable dubstep song in general. It's even worse to know that, of an album that runs for over an hour, there's not really a good track. Sure, there are some which are better than others, but some are really scraping the bottom of the barrel, quite ironically considering dubstep is already the bottom of said barrel. For example, the Big Chocolate remix of 'A Prophecy' is a complete embarrassment to music. It is unenjoyable in practically every way, and its sad to know that there are people who will defy my logic and actually enjoy it. It's even worse that some songs didn't even need to be on this album.
Borgore's remix of 'The Final Episode (Let's Change the Channel)' could have worked perfectly fine as its own unique dubstep song. The vocals stolen over from the original song sound carelessly slapped on as a last minute attempt to make money of the popular Asking Alexandria name.
'Stepped Up and Scratched' is an unnecessary, unpleasant release. It serves absolutely no purpose other than to bring Asking Alexandria and label Sumerian Records a little bit extra cash. It is in no way pleasing to the ears. Dubstep remixes should stay confined to the internet, but this has made it out into the world as an actual physical release. It is a complete embarrassment, only made even more embarrassing by the fact that gullible Asking Alexandria fans will eat it up. Then again, Asking Alexandria fans are likely to fall into the target audience of this genre, and unfortunately, this will probably end up being a success.
