Nu-VITAL REMAINS...[views:3229][posts:32]_____________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 4:16am - AUTOPSY_666 ""] A couple brutal reviews of the new CD... Anyone heard this yet? Kill God, Kill Christ, but moreover, kill art. - 5% Written by BloodIronBeer on March 25th, 2007 Okay, I'm just going to get right to it. This band is so superficial and disposable it's ridiculous. Here's the band's formula, which remains unchanged from previous albums ... Drums: Do fills with pauses for riff to be played four times, come in with ceaseless blast beat with ceaseless double bass at 250+ beats per minute (that's tempo, not the actual hits on the snare) Do occasional "switch beat", at half blast beat speed to feign variety. Make sure to trigger everything so it sounds like complete fake, mechanical because that's "evil" and make sure the snare and bass drum are triggered too loud in the mix, and the cymbals are really quiet. Vocals: Sound like an aging death metal icon who's lost any passion he may or may not have ever had for a lost cause to free humanity from Christianity. After singing 4 lines, use screams to back up the next 4 lines, because your vocals are airy and laughable and this might help to mask that fact. Write the same lyrics with different song titles about killing Jesus, even though he's already dead. Instead of actually making an intelligent argument against Christianity, simply continue to write lyrics about Hell, the apocalypse, and killing Jesus, because that of course, will convince everyone not to be Christians and not because that's what's expected of you, being the evil, evil, evil band you are (this isn't a complaint about this band alone, it's a complaint about all "Satanic" bands who don't say anything intelligent. They even say moderately intelligent things about it in interviews, but they're lyrics are all the same contrived junk. Seriously, if you really want to destroy Christianity, why not make a real, valid, and intelligent argument against it, rather than trying to piss Christians off and in turn just strengthening their beliefs, while all the 16 year old death metallers giggle about your childish lyrics, which of course, you've been repeating since you were their age. Morons.) Guitar: Play rehashed death metal riff. Play it again. Play it again. Play it again. Play it again. Play it again. Play it again. Play it again. Perhaps play two more riffs the same amount of times and stretch them out to obscenely boring, repetitive songs and fail miserably at being at all epic. Copy/paste the solo guitars from last album into the new album because your riffs are extremely weak and juvenile, and this may help to compensate for your lack of song and riff writing ability. Song writing: Don't forget to make every song in the same key, at the same tempo, with a similar chord progression, with the same vocal pattern, and the same obtuse lyrics. Yes, of course, it's fast, the guitar solo is cool (yes, solo - they all sound identical, like everything else here) and yes it's brutal. And those are the only reasons I give it any points at all. But who cares? No emotion, no intelligence, no artistic vision, no originality, no diversity, no song writing finesse and no talent beyond being able to play fast. It's forgettable, it's fake, it's boring ... it's the worst kind of bad; it's contrived. It just tries to be what people expect of it. Not any different than a pop singer. In trying to cater to your fans, you've killed artistic integrity, Vital Remains. You don't play for yourself, you don't express yourself, you express things just to please your audience. Nothing but a bunch of trendies. If you want brutal death metal with great song writing, brutality, some originality, and intelligent lyrics, just listen to Behemoth or Beneath the Massacre. Even if you're not looking for all that much, there's a sea of bands that can do what Vital Remains does without being so damn repetitive. Hey Vital Remains, you know what's more metal, yet still exponentially less contrived than trying to be "evil"? ... being intelligent, talented and original. Play It Again, Tony... - 50% Written by asymmetricist on March 15th, 2007 After a few years of extensive touring, Vital Remains have returned with the follow-up to "Dechristianize", and it could indeed be considered "Dechristianize 2". The elements are all pretty much the same: overused double-tracked vocals, overlong tracks, relentless blastbeats and neverending clicky double bass drum salvoes, and as a counterweight large portions of melodic lead guitar material and neoclassical solos. And again, a production that is brutal in its clarity, yet utterly sterile (though at least the snare isn't so tinny this time). It really is a shame, because there's a lot of talent on display here. I'm essentially talking about Dave Suzuki, who handles both drumming and lead guitar duties, and is a remarkable performer (and has played both instruments live). He knows just how to pour beautiful streams of notes out of his guitar in the midst of almost Maiden-esque harmonies - but we heard it all four years ago. As for Tony Lazaro, who's responsible for all the songwriting: he needs some serious lessons in variety. Not within a single song; with most of the songs clocking in at 7-8 minutes, there's time for plenty of different sections. But the songs just don't sound very different from one another, unfortunately. The same riffs surface again and again, and we've heard them all somewhere else already. Truly, I don't know how musicians can remember which bits belong to which song on stage when they're all so similar. And once again we have a dominant Glen Benton, often in duplicate. I have always found him one of the most boring death metal vocalists, being both devoid of variety and utterly bland, no matter how high and overpowering he might be in the mix. But this ties in with the rest of the music's components: big and fat, but lifeless and uninteresting. I'll give them one thing: this time around, they use the excessive song durations to put a bit more different material in each one, rather than essentially playing each song twice as they did on "Dechristianize". But as I said, that doesn't change much in the final reckoning. Time and again one can witness how artists find a formula, then stick to it - and that's the worst thing that can happen. I've given this album 50% because there's a lot of ability here, but if I were being a bit more dogmatic and hardcore about it, I could imagine giving it much less, as it's pretty much a pre-fabricated product. "Underground"? My arse! This is high-polish stuff, with not a trace of underground roughness to it. "Dawn of the Apocalypse" sounded a lot more authentic. As for the lyrics/image/artwork, it's naturally the same unbelievably tired anti-Christian and Satanic clichés. Come on, does the world really need yet more of this? How about showing a bit of imagination? :shocked: |
| ________________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 8:12am - SM Nose Chief ""] i enjoy the new record |
| ___________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 9:26am - fishcakes ""] I think it's killer! |
| ___________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 11:07am - Archaeon ""] Leave it to metal archives for the best reviews.... |
| ___________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 11:27am - Aegathis ""] yea I pretty much agree with both those reviews, Im glad I got to download it before i went out and wasted money on it. |
| ____________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 12:10pm - Korn fan ""] Vital remains rulzzzzz!!! |
| ___________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 1:05pm - dreadkill ""] Korn fan said:Vital remains rulzzzzz!!! hahahaaha |
| ________________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 10:28pm - Aegathis nli ""] lulzzzzzzzzzz |
| ____________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 10:38pm - dreadkill ""] lulzzzzzzzzzilatorz! |
| ___________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 10:39pm - brian_dc ""] I have a hard time disagreeing with the reviews. Yet I enjoyed the album for a listen or two at least. |
| _______________________________ [Apr 29,2007 11:24pm - blue ""] i like the new album, but it seems a lot less mature than dechritianize. seems like the songs are built a lot more around simpler riffs and the leads dont seem like they were crafted around the riffs so much as they were just put on top of things. |
| ______________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 11:36pm - Beorht-Dana ""] I haven't heard the new album but I will say that I think Dechristianize was the most overhyped and overrated albums to come out that year. I liked the first song the first time I heard it but by the end of the album I was sick of it. |
| ____________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 11:37pm - dreadkill ""] korn fan is the best person in this thread |
| ________________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 11:38pm - Aegathis nli ""] theres one point in the cd where it sounds like dave suzuki's gonna bust into an old school thrash beat like on dawn, but NO! more non stop fast double bass! |
| ___________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 11:51pm - Dankill ""] Dechristianize was a good album, but Vital has turned into a glory project for Glen Benton to kill time with. Now it's just Tony and Dave. Fuck, Anthony was a solid vocalist. They should have just stayed with being a good fulltime RI death metal band with ALL members. |
| ________________________________________ [Apr 29,2007 11:59pm - Aegathis nli ""] Dankill said: They should have just stayed with being a good fulltime RI death metal band with ALL members. yea seriously! i dont take them seriously any more for this reason. They dont even announce the names of the people that they get to play with them on tour. theyll just show one or two pics of them on myspace out of 50 and expect us to know who they are. |
| _______________________________ [Apr 30,2007 10:36am - Yeti ""] AUTOPSY_666 said:If you want brutal death metal with great song writing, brutality, some originality, and intelligent lyrics, just listen to Behemoth or Beneath the Massacre. i agree with this guys review, but that statement sucks. terrible bands to use as a reference. |
| ____________________________________________ [May 2,2007 4:32pm - degenerate bastard ""] i think vital is one of the sickest band out there,and dave is a fuckin prodigy . but most of all just cool muther fuckers that don\'t need a full page report , like your bitchin at them sounds like you have other problemb\'s ? |
| ____________________________ [May 2,2007 8:01pm - OCR ""] it was a decent new album, the picture of the 4 horse er 3 horsemen is super gay. Also the fact vital gives no info/knowedge on the dude that played bass with them for over a year is shitty should't he be the fouth horsemen? |
| _____________________________________ [May 2,2007 8:38pm - Whoremastery ""] u mean ron greene? he should have been thanked! |
| _____________________________________ [May 2,2007 8:54pm - the_reverend ""] I totally see everyone's point, but I enjoy the CD. but I have shitty music taste. |
| _______________________________ [May 2,2007 10:38pm - eric ""] I think the album is awsome. It's dechristianize on steroids |
| _______________________________ [May 2,2007 10:41pm - eric ""] Though I would like to see Anthony Geremia replace Glen Benton. I told anthony that when I met him. |
| ____________________________ [May 3,2007 1:29am - OCR ""] Whoremastery said:u mean ron greene? he should have been thanked! yup no respect whatsoever pretty lame if you ask me |
| _____________________________________ [May 3,2007 1:40am - the_reverend ""] EVERYONE has told anthony that he should be the singer, but anthony's name doesn't have the $$$$$$$ behind it that glen benton does. |
| ______________________________ [May 3,2007 1:51am - yummy ""] they should remain a studio band if they want Benton. It's okay to have a fill-in guitarist go on tour but not the singer, imo. Without Anthony, they would not tour much. |
| _________________________________________ [May 3,2007 4:57am - Dwellingsickness ""] I said this before,but since the subject came up again. I think the songs are way too long, The CD just doesn't hold my interest. |
| _________________________________________ [May 3,2007 9:59am - largefreakatzero ""] I haven't heard the disk yet, but the 1st guy's review is pretty hilarious. |
| ______________________________ [May 3,2007 10:36am - Yeti ""] Dwellingsickness said:The CD just doesn't hold my interest. thats how i feel as well. its cool, its speed is inhuman, and its got the right idea, its just nothing to write home about. i really dig Dechristianize, despite the mediocre vocals. however with this one it was just round 2. |
| _________________________________ [May 4,2007 3:46pm - niflheim ""] Forever Underground is the best one |
| __________________________________________ [May 14,2007 3:14pm - largefreakatzero ""] OK, I finally heard this disk: Speed = blinding Riffs = meh Vocals = I wish I didn't know it was Glen Benton, and maybe I would like it better. |
| _____________________________________ [May 14,2007 4:30pm - the_rooster ""] haven't heard the new album, but "Dechristianize" was incredibly boring. 8 minute songs have no place in DM. i think the first review sums up what's going on with metal in general right now, not just with VR. so many bands are falling into this same cycle, which is making the genre as a whole very contrived. it needed to be said. this obviously doesn't apply to all metal bands. their are still some great ones out there, many of which are barely known to the general community. thank god for bands like Mucopus, Animal Rampage, Balls Deep, Cephalic Carnage, Sexcrement, Ghengis Tron, DRC, among others, who seem to disregard all such redundancy in their song-writing. |
| __________________________________________ [May 15,2007 8:46am - largefreakatzero ""] This album was pretty boring. You could pretty much take the best riff out of each of the 10 songs, write one 5 minute song and that would sum up the entire disk. |