The Shadow Line

Written by: PP on 21/02/2007 16:08:03

I've spent the past few days occasionally pondering why the general public's music buying habits seem so illogical at times. I mean what is it about them that on one day makes them arrive into the conclusion of buying a My Chemical Romance album thus lifting the profile of a fantastic band that deserves all the attention they can, but then on the next day sways them into buying an album by a band like Godhead? According to their bio, this is a band who has sold almost half a million records combined in the US alone, and is thus given a reason to exist, a reason to make music at all? No matter how hard I try to understand the mindset of someone who buys an album by Godhead, I just fail to see the logic in buying crap like this when especially today there are so many great alternatives in any given record shop as well as online!

It's not that Godhead's songs are all terribly bad as such. "Trapped In Your Lies" and others on the album are your typical hard rock with pseudo-heavy intro hooks, sorrowful vocals and predictable verses followed by even more predictable singalongable choruses with open-ended riffs as if to make the songs sound ten times bigger than they are in reality. Nope, this is not "The Shadow Line"'s problem at all, because in small doses even a band like Hoobastank is bearable. However, what really ticks me off about this record is the ultimate show of uncreativity, uninspiration, unoriginality and un-pretty-much-everything that's present on pretty much every damn song. Every track sounds alike (and I don't mean hc-indistinguishable noisecore-like, I mean you literally could play them on top of each other and the choruses would be in exactly same places and the guitars would still be in synch with each other), and all of them sound like they were written by a band with their head so far up nu-metal's ass it doesn't look like they're coming out anytime soon. Speaking of Hoobastank--and I truly wish I wouldn't have to speak about them after "The Reason" and their latest fiasco--try putting on "Fall Down" at the same time as the title track from "The Reason"? Notice anything? Well I wouldn't want to push this on anyone so I'll just go ahead and reveal it to you: Godhead stole this awful symbol of everything that is wrong with today's commercial mainstream music, and apparently exchanged its lyrics with even more horrible ones. It even has the exact same vocal accentation for God's sake!! How could they consciously think they can get away with this!??

I don't exactly know what was going on in the heads of these idiots who dare call themselves musicians, but it still ceases to amaze me each time I listen to "The Shadow Line". Every track on the album is a safe bet for guaranteed hard rock radio-play as betting on Britney Spears doing something retardedly stupid this week (like shaving her head), except that the songs here are even worse than the ones you tend to hear on commercial radio. Nu-metal / mainstream hard rock fusion. Just think about that for a minute and let it dwell in your imagination. Adema's been there, as have bands like Earshot, Powerman 5000, Saliva and Trapt. And look at these bands today! The few that survived the plane crash of a previously popular airline called nu-metal are considered purely comical and mistaken as satirical acts (as one might imagine nobody could possibly lack this much inspiration), and none of them have retained more than 3% of their original fanbase today. There was a point in time simultaneous with the exponential growth of sites like Myspace when people suddenly realized they don't have to buy shit music, much better music than what the major's like to shove down our throats does actually exist. People simply realized they have a choice. As for you, dear reader, make the right choice, and no matter how tempting it may be, don't even think about clicking that 'listen' link.


Download: Trapped In Your Lies
For the fans of: Adema, Earshot, Saliva
Listen: Myspace

Release date 29.01.2007
Cement Shoes Records
Provided by Target ApS

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