Ambivalence
- Demo (2005) If you're into Misfits / AFI style punk rock you'll probably enjoy this band. Apparently this was an album they were going to release but then decided to give it away to anyone that wanted it. So they burned up a bunch of CD-Rs, Printed off a booklet with cover-art and a tracklist, threw some stickers in and mailed them off free of charge. You have to respect that kind of dedication. This CD starts out kinda badly, the opening riff in the first track "Cyanide" sounds too nu-metal for my liking, and the music sounds like it's trying to be too fast for the band, the changes are too abrupt. It doesn't sound natural. It's too long at 4 minutes, No dice on this song, not a good choice for an opener.. The album gets better and better after this. The majority of the other songs are fast, short and catchy. The kind of stuff that leaves you wanting more. I love the production of this demo, it sounds kinda lo-fi but you can hear every part of the band clearly. A lot of songs have vocals that sound too much alike, thankfully some backup woah-ohs break it up before it becomes monotonous, It seems that just about every time i notice something i don't like about a song the band changes something up and it gets better. My favorite track is "Skindeep" which has this Danzig-fits / AFI thing going on. yeah i know i said it before but that's the best way to describe this song. It's pretty awesome. The last track on the CD has a huge pause and a hidden track, long gaps piss me off. But I was happily surprised when i realized that the hidden song is actually a cover of one of my favorite songs Graves - Ophelia. A pretty straight forward cover though it sounds like Danzig covering Graves. Hmm. A nice surprise nonetheless. A lot of this album kinda blurs together, but it's still better than a lot of the generic local punk outfits out there. This review might be a little harsh but i do like it, I'd encourage people to check out their songs and judge for themselves, email them and they might send you a CD to review for your own crappy site. I cant wait to see what they pull off in the near future. There's a ton of potential here. I assume the next Ambivalence recording i hear will be lightyears ahead of this. Listen to them: http://www.myspace.com/ambivalence 
3 / 5 skulls- Sean www.brutalfattery.com |