Print
E-mail
RSS
Comment
Rate
NEW ON DISC: Nihilists who never quite left the eighth grade
If you think advertisements are bad, you should get your hands on a couple of music industry press releases, which rate on the reality meter somewhere between an out and out lie and a communications major’s earnest attempt to polish a turd.
One of the better ones lately was sent out with the Acacia Strain’s new album, Continent.
According to this tome, the Acacia Strain is “Springfield, Massachusetts’ heaviest band,” which had me laughing immediately. I’m sure someone out there cares about the thriving Springfield, Mass., scene, which includes such crap as Shadows Fall and Staind, but it’s not exactly something to toot anyone’s horn about.
Sure, the Acacia Strain is heavy, but heaviness is a cheap commodity. A lot of bands are heavy, but few are really worth listening to. And the Acacia Strain is not among them.
The band combines the worst elements of the metal-ized hardcore that has taken the place of the late, unlamented nü metal. Think heavy but highly compressed guitars, ridiculous Cookie Monster vocals shouting self-pitying lyrics, and a generally juvenile atmosphere, and you’ve nailed the Acacia Strain—and about a thousand other crappy metal bands.
As far as the juvenile atmosphere goes, the band really makes an effort to hit all of the bases, from Terminator (“Skynet”) to Marvel Comics (“Dr. Doom”) to H.P. Lovecraft (“Cthulhu”) to Clash of the Titans (“Kraken”).
According to vocalist Vincent Bennett, “Continent is basically my absolute disgust towards everything. The whole album is based on the concept of nihilism.”
As nihilism is the peanut butter to metal’s chocolate, such platitudes should be taken with the same grain of salt reserved for running backs who thank God in the postgame. Of course Bennett is going to say something like that instead of the probable truth, which is that the album is about stuff he liked in the eighth grade.
Then again, a nugget of truth may have inadvertently slipped out in the press release. If the Acacia Strain is really that fed up with everyone and everything, that would explain why they would write and record such a moronic, pedestrian metal album, whipping the dead horse of a sound that should have been put to rest years ago.
A careful reading between the lines of the press release could have spared me the hours lost listening to this album, because if the press material is going to be this bad, the album in question isn’t likely to be any better.
--Rick Allen
 |
 |
|
| Almost an hour of chill | Last gig |
Article Rating
Video Comments
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of theotherpaper.com.
