Review Summary: "Would you agree that this album is far from all right? (It falls below the line! It falls below the standards!)"
Reunion and comeback albums have always been hard for music artists; having to come back out of nowhere to a fanbase who have likely cemented a certain image and expectation out of you can make them hard to please when coming up with something new. But for the post-hardcore band Scary Kids Scaring Kids, this task is even harder, fifteen years after their last album in 2007 and eight years after the death of their vocalist Tyson Stevens in 2014 (R.I.P.). But on the surface, it would have
seemed like the band had reunited in memory of their fallen comrade in 2019 originating out of a pretty good tribute single to him, titled “Loved Forever”, and the band
seemed to further suggest this with the announcement of a new album,
Out Of Light, featuring a cycle of solo singers and the vocalists from metalcore/post-hardcore bands such as Bad Omens, Saosin and Ice Nine Kills on every track of the twelve song album,
seemingly in the vein of the Snot (tribute) album
Strait Up….but have you noticed I’m using the word “seemed” a lot?
Unfortunately, the execution of the suggested concept in
Out Of Light is, for the most part, poor, and results in Scary Kids Scaring Kids compromising everything they used to be musically in order to fit in with the mainstream, and in turn sounding like complete garbage by losing their Saosin-Thrice-Chemical Romance crossover identity that made them a special band in the first place. The reason
Strait Up, compared to this album, was enjoyable was simply the fact that the album felt like everybody involved was uniting under one banner in tribute of a fallen hero (Lynn Strait: R.I.P.) and didn't compromise their sound (as in, just because Serj Tankian appeared on Snot’s
Strait Up didn’t mean that the rest of the band started playing System of a Down-style riffs); on the other hand,
Out Of Light barely appears to acknowledge the band’s past.
Out Of Light isn’t post-hardcore or emo; instead, the album roots itself in the “electro-metal(core)” sound, complete with heavy use of BMTH-ism’s* and electronic effects, in what appears to be an attempt to accommodate the vocalists of the album, instead of doing what they do best. The aforementioned “electro-metal(core)” production is easily the album’s biggest gripe; while Scary Kids Scaring Kids used keyboards/keytar and some effects with their earlier recordings, here they feel excessively forced/plastered onto every nook and cranny of the music, and pushes both the guitars and keyboards(!) down the mix; the keyboards do exist, but at times they are so quiet and thin that they’re barely audible below the effects or distinguishable they used to be. The keyboards on
After Dark EP and
The City Sleeps were, admittedly, a little obnoxious at times; but nowhere near as obnoxious as the effects on this record. Look; I'm not trying to say digital production is bad; but it is so poorly used here. I understand an argument exists that “It’s been fifteen years! They aren’t going to be the same band!” and that the sonic departure and production is being used for “experimentation”; but, if this album shows anything, experimentation is not necessarily going to always bring positive results, and here it harms the album significantly. Heck, even "Loved Forever" had better production than this entire 47-minute dredge of an album.
There is nothing innately wrong with the band’s musicianship on
Out Of Light- there are various moments throughout which show the band still has the ability to throw in a little technical solo here and there, and the album’s greatest strength are its choruses on songs like “Black Hole” and “Knock It All Down”. However, just like “First Class” by Jack Harlow, a good hook/chorus doesn’t mean the rest of the song, or in this case the album, is; the song writing is easily the worst to come from the band, with a few positive glimmers in between. The deadest track of the entire album, the offensively boring “New Morning”, is the closest this album gets to pop music, and sounds closely related to “Watch Me Bleed” (from the band’s self-titled record), albeit instead of feeling emotionally raw and vulnerable like the aforementioned song, it feels artificial and over-produced and over-stuffed. It also contains another crime, which is featuring Saosin’s Cove Rober on this song; he wasn’t an amazing singer, but the sparse arrangement makes his flaws more obvious. Other songs up for particular criticism are “The Dark”, which has perhaps the most underwhelming choruses of all time- you expect it to explode into action, but instead doesn’t go anywhere, and leaves you disappointed, and Ice Nine Kill’s Spencer Charnas’ song (“Nightmare”), which is missing/lacking in Charnas’ versatile range and charisma, and feels too simplistic for Charnas’ horror persona (if you’ve hear INK’s amazing “Hip to be Scared”, you already know what I mean). Another sucky song is “Omens” with Spencer Chamberlain, and the music is barely in key with Chamberlain (like it's horrifying out of key). Scary Kids Scaring Kids were able to get the point or atmosphere of a song across without using too many effects and were able to generate their gothic-emo vibe in their music organically; the effects and production come off as a crutch for the band, and when attempting to force a “scary” mood, like in “Nightmare”, it comes off as forced and cliche-cringy horror. Like, even “Degenerates” was more haunting off-the-bat than this song, with less effort. The band’s best moments are when they don’t force any mood on the listener and work a nice combo between the old and new formulas, most notably on “Black Hole”, which is the closest you’ll get musically to the old Scary Kids Scaring Kids.
If Scary Kids Scaring Kids released the album’s four best songs (To The Unknown, Knock It All Down, Black Hole, Endlessly Yours) as an EP and/or under a different name, this release could have probably gotten a 3/5 at best; because honestly it's not horrifyingly bad like many, many other albums. But there’s so much noticeable filler in the album that it begins to drag, and combined with the use of good vocalists in bad songs, ultimately makes this album an exceptional disappointment for old fans and will ultimately fail to attract new fans to the band (like it’s trying to). As mentioned earlier, instead of the band making a combination between the band’s known sound the featured vocalists as a tribute to the band’s legacy, they dilute themselves into digitized simplicity; and to the best of my knowledge Scary Kids Scaring Kids isn't supposed to be a simple band. The fact the music isn't even that great, combined with the fact that the SKSK band name is used after his death with no contributions from Tyson Stevens, feels out of touch with their past and tramples on the band’s legacy; for the most part, there's little to no nostalgia generated, and the entire album just comes off as a cash grab designed to try and attract a new fanbase. But I'll tell you and the band now; it won’t.
Out Of Light misses the mark so badly in trying to compromise, that all players involved are creatively diluted, even the singers of the bands you’re (possibly) trying to attract the fanbase's attention of- meaning, you (the band) failed at achieving your objective. In the end, this album will most likely be written off as a bad/boring reunion album that will be remembered briefly, and then subsequently forgotten and dismissed by their original fanbase, echoing a similar fate to
Uncanney Valley by The Dismemberment Plan** or the post-Jim Morrison output of The Doors. Which is unfortunate, as it could have been good; it could have been something special, it could have had real potential; but never could show.
I really hate to be emotional now, but I don’t understand how tone-deaf the band appears to be of their own legacy and of their past, and it sort of hurts. I really expected more.
2/5
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Find the album here: https://velocity.lnk.to/outoflight
* Bring Me The Horizon isn’t a bad band; actually, they’re a great creative force. But, the subsequent worship by rock bands of their
That's The Spirit/
amo musical formula while contributing/doing nothing to make it cooler/unique, is the gripe I’m talking about here.
** I hope you get the reference at the end of the review
