Coal Chamber was awful.A band so horrible, I remember feeling sorry for them as they opened for
Type O Negative while supporting their debut album (Self-Titled 1996).Coal
Chamber was met with kids who turned their backs to the stage.Kids left venues just to get away from Coal
Chamber's poisonous music.
When Dez Fafara spouted the inane lyrics “me so loco” and
took himself seriously doing it, you had to forcibly hold in your vomit.As a frontman, Dez’ artsy pretension (like,
holding his arms out like a clock as he sang the lyrics “clock, tick, tick,
tock”) was laughably bad.No metal fan I’ve
ever met in my whole life has taken Coal Chamber or any of its music seriously.
In fact, one might argue that Coal Chamber unwittingly epitomized everything
that was wrong with heavy music in the late 90’s.They were a “me-too” nu-metal band
desperately hanging on the coattails of a subgenre that had already outlived
its welcome by 1996.(For the record,
nu-metal’s welcome lasted for about six months in 1994).As Dez’ brainchild, Coal Chamber was designed
from the inside out to emulate a subgenre that sucked already.
At his greatest fault, Dez Fafara has truly zero musical
creativity.Period.
And now that nu-metal is no longer hottest flavor
at the coffee shop, there is no longer a reason for Coal Chamber to exist.Instead, bands like Lamb of Gob, God Forbid,
and Trivium are carving out the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, as it's called. And Dez’ has an answer for that too.
This time, his “me-too” band is DevilDriver, and they’ve
just released their third studio effort, The
Last Kind Words (2007).To be fair,
I reluctantly enjoyed the previous album The
Fury of Our Maker’s Hand (2005). The
opening track, “End of the Line” was hopelessly groovy and catchy. Perfect for metal Car-aoke.On a whole the album was solid, if a little
predictable. With The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand, you knew exactly what you were
getting into upfront. Heavy? Yes.Groovy?Yes.
Innovative?Absolutely not.
Groundbreaking?Absolutely
not.
With The Last Kind Words, Dez and DevilDriver deliver
another totally predictable metal album that you’ve heard a million times
before. It’s fun, heavy, and precise to
be sure.But you’re not hearing any
material that’s above and beyond what these guys have already done. Basically it’s a lazy album that sounds exactly
like what DevilDriver has already released on their two previous efforts.
One wonders what Dez will do when the next hot flavor of
metal emerges.In his heart of hearts, if the man really wants to
make his mark on the scene, I’d like to see him present something new for once.
Something that will make me believe he
can do better. In the end, The Last Kind Words is a serviceable and well produced
record.
But is it essential?Absolutely not.
Review
Tub Ring - The Great Filter
Elmer McCurdy - June 27, 2007
Ask any headbanger, if Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman left
Slayer, they really couldn’t call it “Slayer” anymore.Without the Cavalera brothers, Sepultura isn’t
really Sepultura, it’s just four assholes using the name “Sepultura.”
When it was just Dime and Vinnie, they had the decency not
to call it “Pantera.”
So after Zoo Hypothesis came out in 2004, three-fifths of
Tub Ring abandoned the band, leaving only vocalist Kevin Gibson and keyboardist
Rob Kleiner to pick up the pieces.Zoo
Hypothesis, and the album that preceded it (Fermi Paradox) were brilliant
fucking records.On Fermi Paradox (2002),
Tub Ring’s second proper studio effort, they had finally grown out of the “me
too” Mr. Bungle circus music style they’d become known for – and pigeonholed in.
What they became was something altogether more creative and
frenetic.On the space of a single song,
Tub Ring was jumping between Death Metal, doo-wop, and (ugh) show tune music.It was fucking beautiful.Listening to Fermi Paradox, and even Zoo
Hypothesis a few years later, you really got the sense you were hearing
something no one had ever heard before.It was metal without being cliché.It was jazz-metal-rockabilly-musical- doo-wop fusion with all the energy
you’d find at a Tub Ring live show - which usually end up with Kliener bleeding
from playing his keyboard too rough.
Seriously.
So with the release of The Great Filter (2007), Tub Ring
retains only a fraction of its former line-up.It’s Gibson and Kleiner and three dudes you’ve never heard of, but they’re
still using the name “Tub Ring.”
And they should be, because this is a fucking Tub Ring
album. Hands down and without question.And come to think of it, since it’s
tough to find two Tub Ring songs that even sound remotely similar (let alone albums), anything these guys came out
with would *technically* sound like Tub Ring.That is, of course, as long as it didn’t sound like any of the other
albums.
Tub Ring will never, ever, release any record that sounds anything like the one that preceded it. I'm sure of that now.
Great Filter is a Great record.It’s still got the experimental metal touch
going for it, without sacrificing any of the heaviness.Songs like “Get Help (NOW!)” are heavier than
anything Anthrax has done in ten years.The
break-beat intro of “Wrong Kind of Message” streams perfectly into vibrato
thrash riff driving the rest of the tune.
It's
still Metal for Nerds... Metal songs about programming, nuclear
fission, Rene Descartes, and Nintendo! Like, duh, awesome!
But for my money, “Killers in Love” delivers the best sense of
the album overall.It’s a metal tune, built
around a post-hardcore screamo pre-chorus that leads into one of the catchiest
vocal lines I’ve heard in years.Gibson
goes from sounding like he could front 90’s era Earth Crisis, to sounding like
he could be the tenor for a barbershop quartet.
Tub Ring is still a great band, and they deserve to be
rocking that moniker – even with the line-up changes.Tub Ring is a band that continually endeavors to be
(surprise!) innovative in a genre that usually rewards heard-one-heard-‘em-all routine.With Tub Ring, you’re listening to metal you’ve
never heard before.
They’re keeping the genre interesting, and deserve to be
commended for it.
Elmer out.
Commentary
Directed Layout
Fenomas - June 11, 2007
What you probably already know is, 90 percent of the time that people
go into the market to buy baby's diapers, they'll also buy a case of
beer. Go into a Wal-Mart, and there's always stacks of Coors Light
right next to the Huggies. At Kroger, you'll see Michelob next to the
Pampers.
During a hurricane, people buy more Pop Tarts than any other food product.
If it's the holidays, women buy twice as many celebrity magazines as they usually do. Us Weekly loves the November-December time frame.
Among black people, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the best-selling DVD of all time. That's why at Wal-Mart, you'll see it on the shelf right next to Friday and Boyz 'n the Hood. They've got Jet Li's Hero right next to New Jack City.
K-Mart, Target, all of these retailers analyze your purchasing
habits so that they know how to place products on the sales floor for
the next time you come in. Inside the industry, they call this
"Directed Layout." Depending on the first thing you pick up off the
shelf, you should see something else you want to buy every few steps.
These places know what you're going to buy before you even set foot into the store.
It's why every time walk into Target, you leave with six or seven more
things than you meant to buy. It's all orchestrated. And it's worse
than you think.
Obviously, there's always Kleenex right next to the adult
magazines. But what you probably don't know is, most places have
petroleum jelly right next to the produce section. Six steps away from
where you picked up that cucumber, you'll find 12 oz. bottles of
Vaseline.
You can always buy condoms in the normal spot, but if you walk over to where there's Preparation H, you'll find some there too.
And on the same shelf as sodium citrate, you'll find things like cellophane rolls, mints, and sometimes, Halloween masks.
The little aisle endcap where they keep KY and Astroglide, there's always blank videotapes two or three shelves over.
And at nicer places, webcams.
Just look.
And you'll see that it's no coincidence that kids' play
handcuffs and toy knives are in the same aisle as the sponge, just
further up.
