Review Summary: Worse Than Alone is a marriage between transethnic music and intensity, yet boredom is the spawn.
The Number Twelve Looks Like You has officially matured. Once a fledgling grindcore band, their brand of angular intensity transformed into an eccentric and eclectic mathcore sound. Still, their evolution was not complete. Mongrel, the band's third album, took some of the technicality and innovation on Nuclear. Sad. Nuclear. and combined it with the focused aural assault that was their debut. A surprising amount of focus, intensity, and eclecticism transferred over to their third release, the combination of which was intriguing to say the least. However, the combination of these elements on
Worse Than Alone is less than admirable.
In the grand scheme of
Worse Than Alone, a refreshing sense of maturity is present. It's not overwhelming, but its effect is evident. The energetic nature of tracks like “Clarissa Explains Cuntainment” and “Blue Dress” is replaced with stability. Even though “The Garden's All Nighters” shifts back and forth between jazzy interludes and metallic riffage, the song itself is surprisingly cohesive. Yet, “To Catch A Tiger” is a more refined brand of sonic assault. And this stability has transferred to the vocal stylings of
Worse Than Alone. On “Glory Kingdom”, unclean vocal interplay is integral, as is the angular dissonance and fleeting rhythms. These fleeting rhythms occupy “If They Holler Don't Let Go”, a track which transforms from standard hardcore fare into a session of metallic intensity. However, salsa and jazz roots are evident inclusions. This disparity between styles is apt. When one realizes how much intensity “Glory Kingdom”'s vocal and instrumental interplay produces, the tranquility on “I'll Make My Own Hours” is more palpable. However, this disparity, eclecticism, and intensity does not come without flaws. One of which being the tedious nature of this album.
Despite the constant genre-juxtaposition on this album, The Number Twelve Looks Like You seems to be trapped in genre boundaries. Never completely embracing their experimental tinge, many of the stylistic shifts seem to be slightly contrived additives, as seen on “To Catch A Tiger”. “Retort, Rebuild, Remind” also falls ill to the same plague: Although it is tinged with progressive influences, the track amounts to just another metalcore song in the end. Many of the song's structures are haphazard, rarely utilizing the band's quaint qualities as much as possible. These components combine to form a stagnant cesspool of ideas, only half of which are utilized properly. For example, “The Garden's All Nighters” is conceptually brilliant, but fails in its execution. The jumpy discord is not energetic or intriguing, but discomforting. The same applies to “To Catch A Tiger” and “Glory Kingdom”. And if it weren't for the resplendence of tracks like the closer or the transformation within “If They Holler, Don't Let Go”, this album would simply be an impotent take on experimental metalcore. However, there are positive aspects of the album.
For example, “The League of Endangered Oddities” is a world-conscious track, touching upon a variety of genres. Yet, it has an undeniably progressive tinge to it, while remaining accessible and technical. A surplus of said technicality on “Retort, Rebuild, Remind” takes flight with numerous drum fills and complex guitar notes. These off-kilter rhythms even affect “Marvin’s Jungle”, which is technical, yet manages to balance blues and metal. Still, the flaws of this record leave
Worse Than Alone in the dust. While it tries to balance focus and eclecticism, it ultimately forgets to intrigue the listener. It simply is an average record that, while technical and somewhat intense, rarely fascinates.
