Perish: Our Sin
Label: Anko Records
Release Date: 6/26/06
Review Date: 6/08/06
Emo metal with a death-metal vocal seemingly pasted over the top. Dramatic, sensitive high school poetry for lyrics worthy of a Winona Ryder type character in Beetlejuice. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? The title song shows potential until the Death Metal for the sake of Death Metal vocal comes in almost half way through. Even without the cartoon screaming, the production has everything so compressed that most interesting bits like the backing vocals are lost in the mix.
Looking past the bad lead vocals, the song titles are a bit of a tip off already. “Our sin” “Til’ We Say Goodbye”, “All in Vain” and especially “Voir Noir”. The lush design of the packaging and the sensitive Misfits image portrayed in the center spread prepare the listener for stereotypical lyrics that are thoughtfully printed in their entirety for adolescents with mall angst everywhere.
There is talent in this band, and these guys can play, but ultimately Our Sin is just another album of slickly produced boring metal pop music, but with ridiculous lead vocals. Guys, please ditch your lead singer. There are already bands doing this, and the fad, if there ever is one, will not last longer than a few months. Our Sin is what happens when beginning art students are asked to ponder the bigger questions in life. More often then not they go take pictures in a cemetery. That doesn’t fly after it’s been done a thousand times. If you are truly interested in somehow breaking boundaries and exploring Death Metal in pop music, try and step outside the Hollywood movie and music industry packaging of goth-metal and come up with your own vision. Read some books. Buy some records that were recorded before 1995 and expand your fucking horizons for the love of Satan.
Online Action: myspace.com/perishrock
Online Action: www.ankorecords.com