Nightbeast - Inside Jokes For Outside Folks
Thriving Records / East West Records August 25, 2008, 05:27 AM   Its hard to know where to start with this album. So lets give you a little background to maybe give you a better understanding of who the Nightbeast is.
Nightbeast is Nick Testa. He has spent many years on the road with bands in different capacities. Be it from merch guy to stand in band member, he has always been around some pretty big bands that may have inspired this rather obscure album. For a large bearded man with a myriad of tattoos, this is not the music you expect to hear from him.
Now I'm not saying its bad at all but its a little hard to judge sometimes. The best way to describe it would be like walking in half way through a conversation just as the joke is being finished and nobody really explains it to you.
All this aside, this is still a very imaginative album with a lot to offer. It might not be on the first listen or the second but if you stick with it the songs will slowly start to seep into your mind. Come on.... any guy that can mention defending yourself against a beast with a George Forman grill within the first song on an album must deserve some props right?
For the recording of "Inside Jokes For Outside Folks" it seems as if Nick has drafted in a few of his friends for backing vocal duties. Max Bemis of Say Anything, Steve and Jon from Punchline and JT and Matt from Hawthorne Heights all lend their dulcet tones to a few tracks on the album. The album doesn't play off the guest stars though. They are simply there for layering vocals. No cover mentions, nothing. And I like that. That shows that Nightbeast has confidence in his material with feeling the need to push the fact that the album has some very scene popular guest vocalists.
With simple but catchy beats and rhymes so childlike you cant help but sing along to its hard to not enjoy something on this album. The subject matter isn't offensive, or political or sexual. Oh... actually wait.... scratch that last one. Nightbeast is a fan of the ladies. The lyrics on "Inuit I'm Into It" are proof of that...... "no need to worry girl now why would i kid you, its just that i dig you, so get in my igloo". With songs about Eskimos, pandas, cannibals, texting and dancing its hard to find something to get offended by.
Alot of the tracks on the album are, dare I say it, more comedy than anything else by the music tends to pull you aware from that. But then again, Eminem does have his less serious and angry moments and nobody says anything to him. That's because his serious tracks are so good they comedy ones are overlooked and I almost feel that this is the case with the Nightbeast as well.
"Songs About" is a soft acoustic number that with a little extra push could be a great track. It still has a feel of passion in it that makes you feel you are listening to a something that wasn't meant for your ears. Its the same feel with "Sexual Freeze Tag (Love Song)". Now don't let the title put you off. This track lives above and beyond the comedy title. It sounds like it could almost be a hellogoodbye album track with the vocoder working overdrive and the soft programmed backing track floating underneath. Its also the only track that sounds like he really means what he is singing about. No jokes, no funny voices. nothing. its the perfect album closer.
Its not the longest album in the world but it doesn't really need to be. Nightbeast gets his point across in a method that is not hard to understand. It may be funny, it may be serious. Whatever it is and whatever it all means, I do find myself enjoying it and I think you might to.
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Author rating
| | Overall Rating | | 7 | | Vocals / Lyrics | n/a | | Musicianship | n/a | | Production | n/a | | Creativity | n/a | | Lastability | n/a | | Reviewers Tilt | n/a | | 70% | | | |
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