First of all, I'll start out by saying that I'm amused that no one has yet posted a review for Silverchair...
Frogstomp is the Aussie trio's debut CD...It's quite hard to believe that three fifteen year olds' put out a more-than-decent to a great CD...Well, that's exactly what Frogstomp is...
Silverchair is :
Daniel Johns : Guitar / Vocals
Chris Joannou : Bass
Ben Gillies : Drums
1. Israel's Son
This is the song that greets the listener to the album, with quite a grungy welcome...The main riff of the song, in my opinion was just a little overplayed, and at times felt really redundant...As for the meaning of the song, I always saw it as God trying to save the animals or something like that(I might be 100% wrong on this ). Daniel's voice matches the powerful riff in a hating tone, that just says "I loathe you."..There is a mere solo (I wouldn't choose to call it a solo, but oh well..) in the song, which is just him getting feedback from his amp and a lot of harmonics in the background, which I thought he pulled off well...I give this song a
7.5 / 10
2. Tomorrow
This is the band's ballad. The ballad that made them probably one of the most famous Australian bands ever...The song starts out with a clean guitar going into vocals, and the distorted guitar comes in at the prechorus..The solo, I thought, was quite good and showed that they're not completely afraid of expanding creativity..Daniel's singing is persistent throughout the song...I always thought the meaning of the song as "You think that money is the most important thing in the world, you rich bastard, but you will soon find out tomorrow, when you won't have anything" which pertain's to Daniel's "You gonna wait til', fat boy? Fat boy, wait till tomorrow"...I give this song a good
8.2 / 10
3. Faultine
When I first started listening to this CD, this was one of my favourite songs..The song is, once again, clean which goes into distorted at the chorus, which is by the way, excellently suited for the mood of the song. The song stays steady, until reaching the bridge/outro, when the tempo starts increasing...I interpreted the song as Daniel describing a friend of his who died in an 'earthquake-like' accident, and how the town will miss him, or something of that sort... I give this song a worthy and well-earned
9/10.
4. Pure Massacre
This is what I considered their second ballad...It starts out in clean guitar again (three times in a row now) and gets into a grungy, and heavy prechorus..This is one of those songs that you like, but really don't think it's the greatest song ever..It is quite the concert head-banger, I should say. The song is obviously about "War" and how it affects everybody in this world...Daniel's singing gets sort-of aggressive at one time or the other, which I think is a good change from the normal. This song gets a
7/10
5. Shade
I have to say, too, that this is one of the best songs on the CD...It really shows the maturity of the band, which some debut's forget...The song is clean all the way through till the outro, which is where Daniel really gets into it...At first, it was really hard to swallow that a 15 year old wrote the solo, which outstandingly one of Silverchair's best. To acquire the meaning of the song, according to lyrics, is what I thought as "getting help if you're depressed, and hold on, because you're not the only one out there that has the same problems"...This song gets an awesome
9.4/10..
6. Leave Me Out
Nothing too special here...The song is about going against peer pressure, and he describes it as someone owning him, and him showing his feelings towards the person's greed and thoughts. The riff is reminiscent of previous songs, which means its just a little boring....I thought this song wasn't complete ****, but then again, it's not that great either..It gets a mediocre
6.5/10
7. Suicidal Dreams
This was one of the many reasons I was interested in buying this CD..Unfortunately, for me it was kinda dissapointing..The song was controversial at the time, saying that it caused people to take their lives (That's ****ing pathetic)...Although that was not the reason I didn't think this song was great..It seems quite bland, and it's not really the Silverchair sound IMO..I'm not saying that it's bad though, just...not too interesting... The song is obviously about dreams of suicide... Although, I do have to say that the riffs of the song fit the right mentality of the situation that Daniel describes...His singing, as always, is good too...This song gets an "ok"
6.8/10
8. Madman
This is an interesting instrumental...It start's out with a riff just based on D and then goes into a powerful - even sometimes I found out that it was thrashy - riff. The song *does* have vocals on the Tomorrow EP...There is a grunt at the bridge of the song, which I thought suited it pretty well...The song comes to a close with Daniel saying "Madman!"...This song gets a
8.2/10
9. Undecided
Some people found this song boring....I thought it was great...The only boring part definitely was the main riff, which got added with occasional mutes towards the chorus....Daniel's singing is top-notch, as he describes his family breaking up, and the situations and consequences of divorce...The song gets a good
8.8/10
10. Cicada
This song was definitely among my favourites...It was just inspirational to me to just listen to it..The solo in the song, is quite interesting, and the whole song keeps steady with good riffs. The song is about growing up and the difficulties that involves in it...Daniel's singing is pretty normal here, and does get just a bit harder at parts..I give this song a
9.4/10
11. Findaway
Silverchair's attempt at punk...It's not too bad, I guess, but I did like their other songs on the CD better..I've never really thought about the song enough to tell what it meant, but I gave a go at it anyway.. I'm thinking it has to deal something with escaping drug addiction and many other problems....The song has a solo (sort-of) that is the traditional "punk-rock style"...The song gets a good
7.4/10
Pros
Good vocals ; Nice array of song meanings ; Some very well-written parts...
Cons
Guitar sometimes gets too repetetive ; Mediocre songs...
Overall
Great CD ; Recommend ;Overall Rating : 8/10
Well, I hoped you liked my review and thanks for reading...I found this CD really good and I'm probably gonna go back to listening it sometime..
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