The scourge of the metal scene and the source of crabcore themselves Attack Attack have finally called it quits. I’m not gonna be snarky and add my own commentary; I believe this news speaks for itself.
Tag Archive: Attack Attack
What a year. Here is a summary of my most pleasurable listening experiences. Quick shout outs to Gaza, Eldrimner, Acrania (Mexico), Disfiguring the Goddess, Gods of Eden, Trash Talk, Xibalba and TesseracT who just barely missed the cut. Sorry guys.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy my list. I didn’t mess around. Just meat and potatoes. Also, I’d love it if you left a comment validating my list or insulting me for terrible taste! Either way, happy doomsday!
I have no idea who’s who, so I’m going to assume it was Dumb Ears and Neck Tattoo.
It’s a good day in the long fight against crabcore. Okay, so admittedly crabcore didn’t turn out to be a relevant sustainable threat in the first place like we thought it would be by now, but the band that inadvertently helped the internet coin the term just imploded this week, losing two members.
First, bassist John Holgado left the band with a confusing and totally-almost-worth-it lengthy statement, which you can see at Lambgoat. Apparently John dropped out of high school at 16 to join the band full time, and it shows. A lot of people are finding his statement hilarious, and while I can see where these people are coming from and did find much of it highly amusing (“You are what you think. Also im not homosexual”), I’m working towards a career in the mental health profession and it’s clear that John is going through a lot mentally and socially and it’s not really something to joke about. So I’m not going to. My thoughts go out to this guy, and I hope he’s able to complete his education and discovers who he really is and who he wants to be.
Not long after, Lambgoat once again reports that frontman Caleb Shomo has also left the group. Apparently they have a replacement ready, which isn’t a surprise since Shomo was a lackluster vocalist and finding someone as good or better to join an already established popular band would be a cakewalk.
Normally I’d promise to follow up on news stories like this, but I probably won’t. Interest in band drama only spreads so thin, even if it’s a band people passionately hate. And let’s be honest, you don’t care who replaces these members. Just know that the band will likely be able to pick up some more members and no one will know the difference.
- JR
Avant-Garde is definitely an acquired taste. If someone had shown me Gorguts four or five years ago I wouldn’t have dug it; I was still scratching my head at Tool’s change from 7/8 to 13/6. However, when I discovered iwrestledabearonce’s debut LP It’s All Happening, my ears were confused. I had never heard anything of the sort. They mixed bluegrass with metalcore, interspersed with symphonic black metal moments, and even some technical guitar work. It was truly mind-boggling, but it worked. And not only did it work, but people my age enjoyed it. I knew people who went to their shows not because they were on the same bill as Asking Alexandria, but because they wanted to see something different. So, with metal purists fuming at this point in the story, how does IWABO fit in with the “avant-garde” genre?
2011 was a really good year. We got some of the best releases of the past 5 years, including Protest The Hero, The Devin Townsend Project, Anthrax, Machine Head, and Between The Buried And Me. But, we also had a lot of the worst. You probably don’t want to remember, but Design The Skyline released their debut, we got (yet another) binary-infused Emmure record, a borefest from Jason Richardson’s new band Chelsea Grin, and we even got that awful train wreck comprised of one delusional old man and the biggest thrash metal band in the world. You know the one. 2012 rolled around, and we thought it couldn’t be done, but so far, it’s kicking 2011’s ass. With great records from Cattle Decapitation, Meshuggah, Spawn Of Possession, Whitechapel, and with anticipated releases from Wintersun, Between The Buried And Me, Cloudkicker, and more, this year just looks like it will get better.
Eskimo Callboy
Bury Me In Vegas
01. Bury Me In Vegas
02. The Kerosene Dance
03. Internude
04. Is Anyone Up
05. Wanderbra Boulevard
06. Legendary Sleeping Assault
07. Light the Skyline
08. 5$ Bitchcore
09. Transylvanian Cunthunger
10. Muffin Purper-Gurk
11. Snow Covered Polaroids
[06/25/12]
[Earache Records]
It was pretty much a given that Eskimo Callboy were critically dead on arrival once their single based on now defunct scene porn site Is Anyone Up went viral. Like Attack Attack and The Bunny The Bear before them, these German partiers practice the most predictable electronic influenced metalcore with paint-by-numbers songwriting, autotune, and ridiculous lyrics about getting drunk, getting laid, and everything relating to and taking place between the two events. This is music by the worst type of people for the worst type of people.
I’ve been paying attention to I, The Breather ever since I stumbled across their video for ‘Forgiven.’ The mounted cameras and soft lighting really added to my first impression of this band. To be honest, I may have overlooked them had I not seen the way they perform in that video. This time through, Thunder Down Country Productions delivered their latest video for ‘False Profit,’ and just like their new music, their new video exceeded my expectations. During the ambient intro, the video opens with slow symbolism flowing between fades. Already I’m interested, and I haven’t even seen the snake slithering over the naked vocalist yet.
Awwww yeaaahhh.
Opening the video with a naked vocalist in the fetal position as one of the first shots is pretty ballsy. (Heh.) But instead of snickering about it, I hope instead people appreciate the dedication the band has to their message.
Attack Attack!
This Means War
01. The Revolution
02. The Betrayal
03. The Hopeless
04. The Reality
05. The Abduction
06. The Motivation
07. The Wretched
08. The Family
09. The Confrontation
10. The Eradication
[01/17/12]
[Rise Records]
What can I possibly say about Attack Attack! that hasn’t already been said? Only a few short years ago they were the butt of every joke as the poster boys for all that is wrong with what metalcore has become. Generic breakdown-laden metalcore with autotuned vocals, misguided electronic parts, and choreographed stage moves was just too ridiculous, and I’m sure the band hasn’t heard the end of it since their ‘breakout hit’ ‘Stick Stickly.’ A lot can change a band over the course of two albums, and with lineup changes plaguing them, Attack Attack! have proved themselves to be quite resilient. I mean, regardless what you think about the band, it takes strength to keep pursuing your career after an embarrassing viral video and losing about half your band. Through it all, the band has managed to mature, making an effort to be taken seriously as musicians. Their latest album This Means War sees the band going from hilariously awful to just unoffensive.
Alright. It’s time to cut this band some slack. We all remember the embarrassing electro-crabcore piece of shit called Someday Came Suddenly. Not to mention that terribly generic and forgettable self titled garbage. This isn’t bad though.
So the track is imaginatively titled ‘The Motivation‘. They use some old tricks like pitch correction and terrible synth, but if the album is like this at all, it won’t be unbearable. As for the song? I enjoy it. The djent is djenty and the verses are good. Maybe we can shed the band some respect for not putting out something terrible…or maybe I am hopelessly optimistic? Shoot off in the comments or whatever and let me know what you think.
- CD
Design the Skyline
Nevaeh
01. Crystal Swords Kill The Hordes
02. Reality Away
03. Destroyer
04. Cybernetic Strawflower
05. Break Free From Your Life
06. Reverie
07. Witch of the Woods
08. Free For Infinity
09. Under The Blood Driven Moon
10. Nevaeh
[08/16/11]
[Victory Records]
You’d think that a metal blog reviewing the new Design the Skyline would simply be a practice in creative verbal abuse, but no, not today. I’d hate to admit it—mostly because it was just so damn fun—but maybe we as an entire internet community over-reacted a bit when we found out about Design the Skyline. Sure, that song “Surrounded By Silence” was hands down one of the worst things I’ve heard in a long time. That song was a terrible mish-mash of all things that was wrong with neon hair and tight pants from the BREE BREE breakdowns to the rave synths and autotune, and worst of all it wasn’t even arranged into anything that could be considered a coherent song. We all scoffed when word got out that they were going to be “proving the haters wrong,” as if there could be any meaningful improvement seen on the album. Turns out, it’s actually not as bad as all that, and I can’t fucking believe it.
