Always Read the Label
Always Read the Label - Natural Suicide Demo
This first song kicks off with a style of riff and the sort of over-produced drums that makes you think "80s metal band," but most of the rest of the song and indeed the whole demo isn't really like this. The band is more alt-rock.The drums are also somehow lacking in variation on this track - sounds like a machine although it could be just hugely over-produced, either way its not a nice sound.As the track proceeds it's clear where the main strengths and weaknesses of the band lie. The guitar is powerful, well thought out and at times interesting though the level is too high in the mix. But the vocals are poor - they don't pack much of a punch, are lacking in any kind of dynamism and the singer often fails to hit or hold the right notes. The disparity between the quality of the singing and the guitar playing is never more evident than when the song breaks down to just the two together - at this point the song sounds about ready to wrap up, but drags on for another unnecessary couple of minutes.
Always Read the Label - Everlasting Blackness
This was not a songname that inspired confidence - conjuring up as it did images of teenage angst-ridden poetry.It starts with some nice Placebo-esque discordant strumming but went downhill after that. The tempo picks up, but the chords plod along insipidly and the singing is particularly slack. Again the production is a bit all over the place. The outrageously overbearing use of gating and reverb on the drums starts to grate on the ear and during the well thought out guitar solo the cymbals are way too heavy.Again the song goes on to long without ever really going anywhere away from the main tiresome structure, however there are a few interesting ideas as it eventually wraps.
Always Read the Label - Miniature Nightmares
Disapointingly the guitar starts out of tune. Then the bassline, (which starts punchy but then kind of shrinks into the background kicks) and the drums kick in. The singer's apparent attempts to sound like the guy out of Muse are maybe an improvement on early tracks but it doesn't really work as he just sounds like he is spoofing such singers. There are some bad vocal stretches towards the end of the track. This said the vocal melody is interesting and the tune does ebb and flow nicely at times.Again the production isn't great and the drums seemed to be exclusively panned to the right, which sounds pretty unpleasant after a while.
Always Read the Label - No you don't
Listen to this on their myspace and you'll immediately notice the further degredation of production quality. Quieter than the previous tracks and with stuff having been recorded with the gain up too high.Musically, it starts off with promising deftones-esuqe riff followed by nicely picked quieter bit - somewhere along the line it slightly disappears into standard nu-metal obscurity with cringeworthy lines such as "I'm sick and tired of all the pain." However, its generally a well-structured and balanced effort - a nice building-from-quiet bridge is neatly followed by some powerful riffs as the band play tightly together to drive the track to its conclusion.
Always Read the Label - Shivers in the dark
Always a fan of a track starting with an interesting drum beat full of toms. Starts off like something from Built to spill or earlier Radiohead.And accordingly out of the whole demo there are the best vocals on this song. In fact its probably the most accomplished song on the demo. There are some interesting chord changes in the chorus and some interesting changes dynamically throughout the song. The final repeated riff is impressively powerful and grungy with the band again sounding at their strongest at these moments although the early part of that section is tarnished by a bit of woeful singing.
VERDICT
Very much swings and roundabouts. Production quality is poor. Singing is poor. Lyrics are straight from the teenage-angst mould and instantly forgetable. However, you can hear that they can play at times. Musically, the songwriting has some interesting ideas, the guitar playing is sharp and varied without being over-the-top, and the drumming is also great at times (when the production quality allows you to make it out.) The best bits are when they are all pummelling out some powerful riffs. There are a lot of improvements to be made here but there is potential.
Link - Always Read the Label MySpace
Reviewed by John Davidson
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