Grace Hotel
  Overall rating: 

Album Reviews

More nu-metally metalcore from this not-so-secretive-anymore band that feature ex-members of a lot of other Solid State related acts, but it's pretty tasteful for what it is, and I'm definitely a fan of these guys. As with their first record the recording is totally ' pro, and aside from drums that sound a little too triggered to me I have no quarrels with it. Even the percussion sounds pretty motherfriggin' good 95% of the time. The vocals jump from singing to screaming, with some ultra extreme sneers on rare occasion, and the core of guitars/bass sounds totally slick. I love that shit. The songs tend to be pretty heavy and stripped down with a few synth accents here and there (fairly well handled) and lots of melody, with a few more laidback passages getting more somber, but never hitting on anything silly or "emo" or whatever. "My Heartstrings Come Undone" does start out sounding like some recently popular Linkin Park song though, and I can't help but get a chuckle out of that. I think the singing vocals have improved, while the aggressive vocals are definitely clearer and more textured, a bit more varied… sometimes too rhythmic for me to totally appreciate, but cool for the most part. Despite being a little groovy and stripped down, the title track is a definite standout because the melodic riffing is a lot more memorable, and I love that action. I think I liked their first record a little bit better, because aside from the aforementioned title track and one or two others, this is a pretty consistent listen that doesn't jump out at me very often. It's all good, nothing makes me go, "Ahhh, this sucks, next!" But all the same, it's a little bland in the writing department for a good chunk of the record. It's sort of long, too - adding to that somewhat dull effect. As usual with these guys the layout's really damn nice, including a massive 28-page booklet (all in black and white) with lyrics, full of artsy band photos, etc. There's some subtle metallic silver ink involved, too - a nice touch. As far as the lyrics go, they're more bitter and almost pessimistic than one might anticipate, definitely falling more in line with the aesthetics of the packaging. The content's actually more developed and better presented than the first record as well: "Within the mind of modern culture there's an idle cog, It is the section of humanity that never forgot, And in the midst of moving forward we have given the right to let the wolves attack the sheep and bury guilt inside, I won't forget the twisted picture of the filth that we were…" A good record, not the best I feel these guys could do, but good. Right about on par with their debut, no great changes have been made to their delivery. I'm still expecting bigger things from 'em in the future.

~aversionline

When you boil a review down it’s basically just a list of pros and cons about whether or not you should buy an album right? A good review is measured by having exceedingly more pros, a bad review… well, more cons. So let’s just cut to the chase shall we? Here is my list of pros and cons for the 2nd release by Demon Hunter

PROS

- A very heavy album in the vain of Sepultura’s sludgefest Roots.
- Production is clean, clear and loud… a must for any heavy recording
- Even though they do have “clean” singing, it’s done with less cheese than any of the other acts out there.
- The core of the band is from Training For Utopia, an amazing hardcore band from the late 90’s.
- 13 songs… that just doesn’t happen these days… unless it’s a rap album.
- The songs retain a certain pop quality. All the songs have very catchy hooks that can stick with you for hours.
- If you have a friend who insists on listening to Slipknot, you can put this on instead.

And now for the flip side of the coin…

CONS

- Dangerously close to nu-metal on a few occasions.
- Has what would be considered “ballads”
- Though well written, some of the songs lack dynamics. You just never get overly excited about a handful of the tracks.
- Lyrics at times tend to fall a little flat (but come on, you aren’t listening to thunderously heavy music for the lyrics).
- Just makes you wish the rumors about a new Training For Utopia record were true.

Pretty straightforward right? Run down the list, my pros out weight the cons, but that’s just me. Fans of Killswitch Engage will love this… but I didn’t love the new Killswitch Engage. It’s a huge, heavy album that brings melodic choruses and places them in the middle of a hurricane of destructive guitar work. At times it panders to the radio-friendly world of nu-metal, but they pull off the fence balancing better than most.

I liked it, and I’ll probably listen to it down the road. It’s not going to end up on my end of the year list or anything crazy like that, but it serves its purpose.

~ Jake