Upon first listening to "The Life Of A Scholar" by fresh beatZ, a few thoughts crossed my mind. These thoughts ranged from: "What was that," to "Well that was weird," to "What the hell am I listening too?" and I think when and if you ever hear this, your thought process will likely be much the same. This is, quite simply, one of the most bizarre albums I've ever heard. It is completely sporadic from beginning to end, both genre-wise and quality-wise, featuring slow piano balladry, weird electronic synth effects, death metal breakdowns, guitar shredding, ambient noise, and a lot more.
But by far the most strange thing about this album are the vocals, which are nearly indescribable. Within seconds of the opening track "Wanna Go On Newgrounds?" beginning, a weird, reverb-y voice comes on top of the simple drum and bass beat making strange noises and saying "Welcome to my album" in a breath-y, nearly incomprehensible murmur. Similarly, in the third track "Dusty," at the eight second mark an actual burp can be heard, backed by a low 'bree' growl. The album also has some samples scattered throughout, such as on "Viva La Vida Pt. 2," where a YouTube video is sampled, and the beginning of "Super Saiyan," where an odd voice clip is played at the start, before being interrupted by a blast beat and another peculiar vocal which sounds like the singer was a having a mild orgasm during the recording.
This album isn't "bad" per se, it's just really, really strange. The instrumentation in some of the tracks, and a few of the effects and riffs used (such as the beginning of the ten second "Jacked") are actually quite interesting. Sadly though, the absolutely mind-boggling vocal performance on this album, couped with its inconsistency, destroy any real potential for this to be taken seriously. Really, who thought it was a good idea to have a 27-minute closing track consisting of nothing but a burp in the first five seconds, then silence until the last two seconds where the vocalist says, "What do you think?"
I'll tell you what I think: I think this album is ***ed up.
