Ok, apart from this being my first review, most of you are thinking who the hell are these guys. These guys from California have produced an album that is, in my honest opinion, a delightful choatic experience. Put it this way, if you even liked Dillinger Escape Plans "Irony Is A Dead Scene", then you will no doubt enjoy this. The vocals are very Patton ("Hi Orbdragon") influenced and the guitar work is a-la Converge, DEP but a bit more accessable.
And on to the track-by-track review:
Track 1 - Silence Fiction
It all begins here. A spaceish intro that is followed by a small yet somehow catchy riff with the vocals singing in a lullabilic (Is that even a word?) way, if you could even call it that. Then it breaks into a sludgy guitar part and in comes the screaming. This then breaks back in to the first riff and singing and then repeats into the screaming with heavy sludgy guitar. The spaceish part comes back in and slowly fades out to end the song. Well, I'd call it more of an intro. 3.5/5
Track 2 - Tick.Tock.Tick.
Ok if this Album had a single, this would be it. Straight away you can tell the Patton influence on the vocals as it explodes into a whirlwind of guitars and drums, then breaks into a more accessable sound with a few weird sound effects. Finally finshing with a catchy "Lalala la lala" that follows the music. Definetly one of my favourite tracks. 4.5/5
Track 3 - Love Through Tapeworm Hooks
This is a great track which begins with a riff that kind of sounds like a messed up version of "Flight of the Bumblebee" then fades quickly into a spacey sound then BANG, screaming and the Bumblebee riff again. It breaks into clean guitars that are building up and a eerie whispering voice then BANG back into some well supervised craziness (Yeah, Yeah). Finish's again with my dubbed Bumblebee effort. 4/5
Track 4 - When Animals Attack
First thing you hear is an elephant and then straight into the guitars goign at it. Followed this is a cool, but short, piano solo that then goes into the guitar playing the piano solo with the guy screeching all the way. This is followed buy some more craziness and some weird Patton'ish vocals followed by clean guitars that break back into craziness. 4/5
Track 5 - Wonderland
Straight off into a cool riff and some shouting for awhile then breaks into clean guiatrs (again) with the vocals going soft in quiet but then the screaming begins again but the guitars while going back heavy sort of sound like they belong in a screamo song. Then its back into the cool starting riff to finish it off. 4/5
Track 6 - John vs. The Elephant
This track starts off with the music from a Jack-In-The-Box, slow classical music. Cool. But then you hear some effects and a guitar building up in the background. Unfortuantly it goes into a kind of generic sounding part but then the vocals go oprea'ish and the guitar improves with a new part. Then it changes into do-di-do-do part, then back to generic sound. It's not so bad as I'm making it sound. 3.5/5
Track 7 - Magnolia Act I
Starts off with clean guitar riff but heavy bass then fades out to a short bit of craziness then back to a bit of calm then back into craziness then back to calm riffage and stays like this with some nice vocals then BANG, screaming and heavy guitars and weird riffage. The vocals are very switchy between RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! and "Sweeeetttttttttttttt" It kind of keeps switching back and forth but it's cool by me. 4/5
Track 8 - Magnolia Act II
Starts off with fast drumming and and evil carnivil riff then goes into some messed up effects and BAM! back into fast drumming again. Th whole song sounds like it belongs in an evil carnival. Short track of 1:17 Tempted to give it a 4/5 but 3.5/5
Track 9 - The Prize
Ok this is my least favourite song. I usally can tolerate long songs but this is just drawn out. The vocals start death metally then back to the normally screamish then to nu-metal then back to his normal scream while the guitars play the sam eirff over and over again. ABout the 3 minute mark it calms down and slower singing is introduced this goes on for a minute or so then back into thrashy guitars and GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR vocals. By the 6:30 mark it all fades to a piano playing slowly for about 9 minutes. Track length 15:39. It's not bad, but it's not my favourite. 2.5/5
Overall I give the album a 4/5. Once again if you liked the stuff DEP did with Mike Patton then theres a 90% chance you'll like this. Recommend songs to steal *Ahem* download are Tick.Tock.Tick. John vs. the Elephant and Magnolia Act I.
