| Check out my band - Bleedelectric.com
"Check out the new look site and the studio arm of Altsounds.com!"
   
altsounds is online now!
| 
SPECIAL OPS - PHASE 2: AMIDST THE MADNESS
REVIEW POSTED BY DRWKNIGHT
Ah, this takes me back…
Imagine a fresh faced fourteen-year old, dressed in a hoodie and dirty jeans, wandering around the local heath with his friends, trying to find a quiet place to smoke. It is a time of long summer holidays and bitching about schoolwork, and attempting to do underage everything but failing miserably on at least one of them because of a complete inability to talk to girls. Some things have remained from that time – mostly a soft spot for metal, but also the complete inability to talk to girls.
If I had heard of Special Ops then, I would probably have snapped up as much of their stuff as possible. Now, I’m not so sure. Not because the Canadian four-piece are poor musicians, because they’re not, or that their songs lack intelligence or originality, which, unfortunately, they do, but simply because the guitars are ridiculously overpowered. This kind of pernickety thing is what really gets me up in the morning, so take it with a pinch of salt. Now, I know that metal often calls for insane amounts of axe-action – Pantera probably wouldn’t be half as good if it weren’t for Dimebag’s weapon scything through everything and demanding, like a half-Spartan, half-Scottish warp-drive engineer, for “MORE POWER!” – but bands such as Tool (and One Minute Silence, a bit of a blast from the past) have shown that you don’t need this to be heavier.
Special Ops’ music is very reminiscent of Machine Head, and, oddly enough, the heavier (and earlier) parts of Incubus. If you can imagine a cross between Burn My Eyes and Fungus Amongus, this is Amidst The Madness. Special Ops have made a good record here, but there is more promise of better to come than there is actual greatness. Some of the riffs, and, indeed, whole songs, such as the final track, “You”, and the poor Cemetery-Gates-rip-off “George”, are a little amateurish. Don’t let this deter you from Amidst The Madness, and certainly don’t write off Special Ops because of it. Keep an eye on them, because if they would only inject a little thought into their music, they could be brilliant.
__________________ I am a Welsh Record Producer, Graphic and Web Designer, Film Maker, Photographer, Artist and Writer. Phew, that's a mouthful! Hit me up if you need work done.
Comment Posted on: November 6, 2008, 08:27 PM
|