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Review Summary: This Canadian five piece show they know how to make a solid effort but do not have the ‘wow factor’ that would push them to the hard rock heights. First up, Cold Driven is:
• Billy Nickell – vocals
• Dennis Nickell – vocals/bass
• Ben Bouthillier – guitar
• Shane Bouthillier – guitar
• Jeremy McLachlan – drums
Debuting with ‘Set In Stone’ Cold Driven express their musical ideas in a manner that can be catchy, but at the same time uninteresting, lacking any special ‘wow factor’. The album can be described as melodic, heavy (more in a hard rock sense than heavy metal) and also includes some synth features. These self-learned musicians bring a diverse amount of influence to the music they produce. Influences can be heard from most notably the hard rock genre but also includes some electronica sections and progressive rock features.
After a short introductory passage the album leads into ‘Breaking Condemnation’ which on a first listen draws to attention what the entire record sounds like: that is the mix of melodic, heavy and electronic sound sources including that of a bell, that tastefully ends the rhythmic pattern during the song. The music at times can be as catchy as most other modern rock groups. Drawing the listener in and getting feet tapping. This can be attributed to the clever rhyming patterns and examples of the patterns are found in tracks ‘Breaking Condemnation’ and ‘In Stone’. Other elements of the band’s instrumentation also reinforce this. Mainly in the rhythm section that backs up the vocal phrasings. The riff patterns are tight ‘chug-styled’ chords usually timed with the drum’s double bass work in a series of triplet patterns or straight patterns. The vocals are a mix of your everyday typical clean rock vocals, coarser passages, nasal country cleans (found on ‘Slipping Away’) and screams all around the middle register, the screams being a touch deeper.
What lets the debut album down is that it’s over consistent. Where Set In Stone is fairly balanced it becomes too much of the same thing. This coupled with some timing issues that are found where Cold Driven adds melodic leads and passages. While these are some pretty key issues, they don’t take too much away from the record. Let’s face it all debut albums have flaws and listeners don’t expect much from the modern rock scene.
Whilst listeners don’t focus too hard on the music, they should find this pretty enjoyable although slightly boring. With highlights such as ‘Breaking Condemnation’, ‘Bittersweet Casualty’ and ‘In Stone’. Listeners should be able to achieve some playback value and a little more enjoyment from the Canadian rock scene. Rather than being disappointed by the same rock band over and over again.
| trending alt & indie albums |
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Not actually that big on the Canadian Hard Rock scene.
I got hooked.Thoughts?
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I'll have to give this a listen
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I'd merge a couple of sentences in the last paragraph but a solid review nonetheless
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Cheers, solid is good!
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Good review as always pos'd bro.
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Cheers champ, this is one i have been wanting to do for a while.
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shudnt use that 'wow factor' phrase in the review aswell man
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noted.
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Album titles should be in italics not quotations.
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Your first paragraph gets a little redundent stating how its heavily influenced by hard rock twice and to be honest while that intro paragraph shows you actually have improved, it still doesn't really have any kind of hook to really get someone interested in reading further. I haven't read the rest yet because I'm on from my phone and that's a hassle but ill read it when I get home.
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I haven't read the rest yet because I'm on from my phone and that's a hassle but ill read it when I get home.
@Spirit, i need to learn that still, thanks for the eventual look over.
"Album titles should be in italics not quotations."
I never have used those techniques and as such don't know the coding etc. If any one can put them up here it would be much appreciated.
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Overall this is definitely one of your better reviews man. A little vague in places but you're actually presenting your ideas coherently this time around which was a big problem with your previous. I can definitely see you getting a lot better as you do more in this style. Pos.
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Thanks Spirit, just help me out here and point out the 'vague' spots. See if i can improve on this.
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The music at times can be as catchy as most other modern rock groups. Drawing the listener in and getting feet tapping.
For the first sentence maybe try to compare it a specific band(s) so we can get a more solidified idea of how they sound. Second sentence is a fragment.
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So i need to maybe list and expand. Cheers Spirit.
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Pos'd. Thanks for the rec'. Checking this out now.
EDIT: It's pretty epic. Solid material.
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Glad i could actually find something you like. But i don't think 'epic' is quite the word.
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Debuting with ‘Set In Stone’ Cold Driven express their musical ideas in a manner that can be catchy, but at the same time uninteresting, lacking any special ‘wow factor’.
-Put a comma after 'Set In Stone'
-To me, the word uninteresting seems to contradict the fact that it is catchy. Maybe pick an adjective that is more specific
The album can be described as melodic, heavy (more in a hard rock sense than heavy metal) and also includes some synth features.
-you forgot to include the subject of your sentence: and it also includes some synth features
These self-learned musicians bring a diverse amount of influence to the music they produce.
-to me, it seems redundant to say that musicians produce music
Influences can be heard from most notably the hard rock genre but also includes some electronica sections and progressive rock features.
-put a comma in there between genre and but
After a short introductory passage the album leads into ‘Breaking Condemnation’ which on a first listen draws to attention what the entire record sounds like: that is the mix of melodic, heavy and electronic sound sources including that of a bell, that tastefully ends the rhythmic pattern during the song.
-put a comma in between 'Condemnation' and 'which'
-replace "that is" with "a", remove the "and"
-change including that of a bell, that tastefully ends the rhythmic pattern during the song to read "including a bell that tastefully ends the song's rhythmic pattern"
Drawing the listener in and getting feet tapping.
-Fragment. Consider revising.
This can be attributed to the clever rhyming patterns and examples of the patterns are found in tracks ‘Breaking Condemnation’ and ‘In Stone’.
-Change to This can be attributed to the clever rhyming patterns, examples of which can be found in ‘Breaking Condemnation’ and ‘In Stone.’
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Mainly in the rhythm section that backs up the vocal phrasings.
-fragment, consider revising
The riff patterns are tight ‘chug-styled’ chords usually timed with the drum’s double bass work in a series of triplet patterns or straight patterns.
-good descritpion, but a comma between "chords" and "usually" would go a long way in making it read better
The vocals are a mix of your everyday typical clean rock vocals, coarser passages, nasal country cleans (found on ‘Slipping Away’) and screams all around the middle register, the screams being a touch deeper.
-"everyday" and "typical" mean the same thing, get rid of one of them
-get rid of "the screams being much deeper"
over consistent
-"unvaried", "overly constistent", something like that would sound better i think
Where Set In Stone is fairly balanced it becomes too much of the same thing.
-I would have written: While Set In Stone can be fairly balanced, it tends to wear on the listener after a while, rehashing the same ideas again and again.
This coupled with some timing issues that are found where Cold Driven adds melodic leads and passages.
-I think what you were trying to say is In addition, that problem is compounded by timing issues during melodic leads and passages.
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Let’s face it all debut albums have flaws and listeners don’t expect much from the modern rock scene.
-Just get rid of this. It goes without saying that all albums, let alone debuts, have flaws. And there is no need to generalize everyone's thoughts on a specific genre.
Whilst listeners don’t focus too hard on the music, they should find this pretty enjoyable although slightly boring.
-maybe it's just me, but a good old "while" sounds just as good or better than "whilst" here
With highlights such as ‘Breaking Condemnation’, ‘Bittersweet Casualty’ and ‘In Stone’. Listeners should be able to achieve some playback value and a little more enjoyment from the Canadian rock scene.
-merge these two sentences with a comma in place of the period
Rather than being disappointed by the same rock band over and over again.
-delete
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I know I tore this to pieces, but this is honestly one of your better works. The descriptions were detailed, and I got a good idea of what to expect from the album. But I'll be damned if your grammar isn't horribly awkward. If you cleaned that up and just developed a better sense of how to put things, you could be a very good reviewer. As is though, this is no more than a slightly above average review. It is just too much of a hassle to sort through all of your mistakes, and my bet is that the casual reader won't.
C +
I know you have an A in you. Let's see another review like this that is free of grammar and punctuation errors.
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