One-Way Mirror - One-Way Mirror
Posted on July 22, 2008 at 8:00 am by admin
Some bands want to get together to make music that’s simply fun, and nothing the listener needs to think too hard about when listening to. Of course, the problem to be battled against is giving said project enough depth.
This project brings together members from European bands such as Mnemic, Soilwork, Lyzanxia, and Scarve. While not a direct sound alike to any of those bands, many of the Euro-pop-metal lessons from Mnemic and Soilwork have been brought over to One-Way Mirror.
The vocals from Guillaume Bideau, who’s currently in Mnemic, and a former member of Scarve are prominently on display here, and he sings most of the time with a youthful yelp that might fit well in an American ex-punk turned pop band like Three Days Grace. He accents his attack with melodic death metal growl. Supporting his vocals are hop-along riffs and chords that one can see owe a small debt to Soilwork and some other more poppy sounding modern metal bands in Europe. The drum sound is a powerful one, whacking the listener with wet bamboo snare drums and boot-stomp bass drums, which every now and them heavy themselves up to steam-roller marching and breakdown smashing. There’s also tiny bits of techno and industrial that sneak in for a stabbing to 2.
The songs themselves however are races to that all too important chorus - a feeling that pours off throughout the entire album. Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of empty space on that forgotten road traveled just to get to those hooks. Problems with this formula are only exacerbated in songs with lock step bass/drum patterns and whispered/distorted vocals, where the bottom tends to fall out, and the energy slows to a crawl. The ballad “Empty Spaces” comes close to the haunting clean guitars from Pantera’s “Cemetery Gates”, but quickly turns into a chorus race just like every other song. There’s also a cover of “Relax” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood! with both techno and metal cranked up, but the vocals are turned up to such an ex-punk turned radio rock style that the song almost parodies itself, and might as well get tossed in the pile with the other radio rocksters, popsters and nu-metal bands who’ve covered 80’s synth-pop bands.
There is a however to add to this, and that the whole combo feels pretty fresh, and pretty darn heavy for something that would likely get radio play. It’s sure not a thinking man’s album though.
Released July 22nd, 2008
One-Way Mirror at MySpace
Metal Blade Records at MySpace
Buy this album at Amazon.com and Aamzon.ca
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Soilwork, One-Way Mirror, Deadlock German Micro-Tour
Destroy the Runner European Tour
Soilwork, Darkane, Daylight Dies, Swallow the Sun US Tour
European Killfest 2009 Featuring: Overkill, Exodus, Gama Bomb, Torture Squad
RSS Feeds
Copyright © 2007, Xtremely Media, All Rights Reserved
