Review Summary: hypa hypa and I really don’t like ya
Electric Callboy are a gimmick band. It’s their identity and they’re proud of it. 7 albums and a name change later, they finally had their big international breakthrough with ‘TEKKNO.’ It’s an album that didn’t take itself all too seriously, but had a clear identity and was a fun time, whether it be the hilarious viral sensation “Hypa Hypa”, or the innuendous “Tekkno Train,” and even when it does take itself more seriously like on “Mindreader,” its still endlessly catchy. Despite it very much being a novelty listen, it’s held its own as a memorable release and skyrocketed the band to household names and main stage festival act.
Now, the follow up for an album like ‘TEKKNO’ was never going to be great. This band is very much a one trick pony, but on their new album that was four years in the making, they couldn’t even land the one trick they have. ‘TEKKNO’ shined in having gimmick/comedy songs that made sense or had themes, yet the serious songs were also serious and seemed somewhat heartfelt, not to mention the variety of sounds on the album. It wasn’t special but it connected with audiences and provided a fun escape for the moment. ‘TANZNEID’ forgets all of this, every song sounds exactly the same, and that sound is if they copied “We Got The Moves” instrumental but pasted ChatGPT vague lyrics about having a good time over it. There’s zero substance, zero fun, zero concepts, and nothing to latch onto.
There’s absolutely zero brain cells active here. It honestly blows my mind that a group of this many experienced musicians at the pinnacle of their careers would make something so soulless, so uninspired, so devoid of any creative intent, and so lacking in direction and thrown together so haphazardly. While Electric Callboy certainly aren’t the band to ask much of, I think the quantity over quality release strategy & epidemic of soulless drivel being made is one of the biggest problems facing metalcore right now, and I just cannot stand here and support/promote soulless drivel.
Calling this release an “album” feels questionable at best. There’s 14 tracks, but four of them are remixes of old songs from previous releases, four of them are random singles from 12-26 months ago, four of them are collaboration songs- including “RATATATA,” an endlessly annoying 2024 single from BABYMETAL’s album last year. One was for a video game soundtrack quite a long time ago, and one was an egregious bastardization of Sum 41’s “Still Waiting”. It’s a cover that genuinely has me wondering why the hell Frank Zummo decided this was ok…
All that to say, there’s only two new songs on this album for release, “Heartclub” and “The Savior.” I’ll give the former credit for being one of the only distinctly different moments on the album, being an aggressive heater of a metalcore track, but it’s extremely overproduced and not interesting enough to move the needle when it comes time halfway through.
Seeing the direction this band was going, I checked out of Electric Callboy pretty shortly after ‘TEKKNO’ came out, but I did see them at a festival during that album’s tour and had an absolute blast. However, that’s one of those moments I’d only like to live once, as it wouldn’t be the same again and would water down that prior experience. ‘TANZNEID’ only cemented this idea in my brain. In an age where we need it now more than ever, espeically in metalcore- there’s just simply zero creativity energy or humanity here. Just YouTube Shorts reaction video slop.
