REVIEW FOR JANUARY 9, 2004

VARIOUS ARTISTS
ROBOTIC EMPIRE SAMPLER #2
ROBOTIC EMPIRE, 2003
 
Well, this is the fourth review I've done today, so rather than be professional and review this album like most people I'm just going to blow through the bands and give my biased opinion in one or two sentences like I usually do.  It's a sampler.  Do you really care what I say about it?  It's cheap as shit anyway, so buy it already.
 
Daughters | Crazy grindcore/artcore stuff from Canada.  Seriously, these guys are okay but I'm not too thrilled with the way their guitars are tuned.  It just seems like they're trying too hard to sound weird while at the same time playing some sort of grindcore/artcore hybrid (I refuse to call it metalcore - refuse.)  Good for what it is, but unlike Exclaim!'s Chris Gramlich I have reservations about the band.  Brave New Waves will eat this stuff up, but I'll just pick at this like I usually do.  Not my cup of sperm.
 
Crestfallen | Grind/artcore hybrid (you'll hear me say this a lot, since I'm a friggin' dope.)  This is melodic yet kicks ass at the same time.  The band is not experimentally minded like Daughters, mind you, but "Rogue Rodeo" is a strong song.  To be blunt, it's grind enough to be punk and it's punk enough to be grind.  Expect a full review of Crestfallen's self-titled EP soon.
 
Circle Takes The Square | More grind/artcore hybridation.  "Non-Objective Portrait of Karma" starts with a three-and-a-half-minute instrumental/soft vocal piece before getting into loud punk/artcore action.  I swear, I have no idea what I'm talking about because my strength is not in the hardcore/"metalcore"/hardcore-metal scene, but the band is okay.  The female singer sounds like way too many of the female-fronted screamers that cluttered the Ontario and British Columbia punk scenes in the late 1990's, though.  See, no fucking clue what I'm talking about.
 
Stop It!! | "Post-hardcore" that just seems a little too meandering for me.  Stop It!! is at least competent in the songwriting department, and the band sounds like Fugazi being played at a stoner rock tempo.  Still, this stuff just doesn't appeal to me at all.  It's good for the punk scene the band is in, but this doesn't appeal much to my tastes.  Still, I at least tolerated it and that's all you need to know.
 
Mannequin/Transistor Transistor | Mannequin's "Music Is Done" is a really catchy punk song.  The song is a little too melodic and repetitive for my tastes but well-done in my opinion.  Transistor Transistor's "If You Really Loved Me You Would Shut Up" is okay, reminiscent of the Alternative Tentacles house sound.  I'm not into the AT house sound at all but I guess the song is good for what it is.
 
The Red Chord | Metalcore-influenced grindcore.  "Dreaming In Dog Years" is really well done and is interesting and brutal at the same time.  There are some musical surprises, and there's enough metalcore influence without ruining the grind base or creating some disjointed hybrid.  The Red Chord seems to appeal to a wide group of people without ruining the influences that make up the band's chemistry.  If only more bands were like this one.
 
Pig Destroyer | Standard grindcore that every time has left me skeptical of the band's hype.  I remember Pig Destroyer receiving rave reviews and constant butt-sucking when the band signed to Relapse and released Prowler In The Yard but "Purity Undone" is just boring as a song.  It's just blast-beats and bellowy screaming.  Sorry, guys, you just don't thrill me like Desperator does.
 
The Now | I guess this is some kind of screamo.  "She's Heroin" goes nowhere for a minute and just shuts down after twenty seconds.  I'm sure your average screamo fan just loves this stuff but I can't be arsed to get into it.  I hate screamo and I hate this song.
 
Tyranny of Shaw/Ed Gein | I'm on the fence with the Tyranny of Shaw offering, "Grendel."  It sounds like average grindy screamo and doesn't do anything for me.  "Grendel" is only about forty seconds long, so no harm done.  Ed Gein's "Beautiful Corpses" is about the same way, except it's grindy melodic thrash with screamo vocals.  Good for the mosh pit but it's rather repetitive and leaves me unimpressed.  That song's three minutes long, too, so I'm going to call it disposable crap-o-rama and toss it by the wayside.
 
Rich Johnson | This is a vocal track.  It's basically the guy screaming.  Obviously this was included as a joke, so I wouldn't make much of it.
 
That ends my review.  I give it a Hacksaw.  Um...that's it!
 
ROBOTIC EMPIRE
PO Box 4211
Richmond, VA 23220
USA
http://www.roboticempire.com/
[email protected]