Heads & Tails Records Promotion Mix – Review

It’s good to hear from across the pond every now and again.

Joseph Todd, CEO and Owner of Heads & Tails Records, sent me his promotional mix today. It consisted of thirteen tracks from thirteen bands scattered around the globe. Some were from the US, some were from the UK, and at least a few were getting some distribution down in Australia (whether they were actually from there or not was rather unclear in our conversation). He came to me with the standard British charm, asking harmlessly if I would be ever so gracious as to review his album. I can’t turn something like that down, as this is my business! I’ve written a lot about each track, so I’ll spare you from our small talk. Here’s how it broke down, in true British fashion; I modeled my scale after the Barclays Premier League:

Bands were promoted if they did a bang-up job and sounded jolly good.
Bands stayed if they were so-so, or if they were good and needed some cleaning up, or if they were bad and I was giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Bands were relegated if I had no more aforementioned benefit of the doubt to give.

Promoted:

• “Cincinatti Bow Tie” by Death Remains – Stereotypical but impressive riff to begin the song, a good screaming tone for the vocals. You can’t hear the drums as much as I’d want to, but it puts the emphasis on the vocals, which I enjoy. A lot of chugging, unexpected low growls – relentless riffs all the way through. I almost don’t want to hear a breakdown! The breakdown, when it finally came, was very effective. It’s different from most of the stuff sent to me in that it was effectively forceful and unrelenting. There are quite a few songs that have been quick and filled with riffs that I’ve heard in this site’s history, but none done quite so tastefully. Ironic, because the name of the song is disgusting.
• “Treachery” by Half Past 12– Classy, simple riff to begin the song. The treble-heavy guitars make me think of a classic metal sound combined with a little something extra that at least I’m not accustomed to hearing. The singing/screaming combination is again very impressive. The melody lines are effective, though not very creative; I’d really appreciate it more if the singer went out of what might be his comfort zone. The drums can be described as “efficient” – a nice couple of rolls as the singer holds out a long note, but other than that, no real spark. The vocals are what make the band so good, along with some of the rhythmic parts. The low-end riffs and the drums’ cohesion with the bass and rhythm guitar are great. I haven’t heard much of a lead yet, but the song is definitely good enough where I will give them a deeper look and see what I can find. A refreshing new take on some classic metal ideologies is what it feels like … minus the lack of a solo, of course.
• “Under the Strings” by Gathered Below – Another cymbal-heavy recording, but I’m able to hear the riffs. Pretty nice use of modifiers for the vocals going into a breakdown, and a moderately clean transition into a slower part resulting in sweeps and another riff. I sound like a broken record, and it’s only the fifth track, but I see a lot of potential here. For me it’s a matter of production value on a promotional CD like this; it sucks that these bands don’t get more attention because they would be up there with the rest of them. The alternation between the riff from the slower part and a breakdown (fresh with panic chords, delivered right to your door) is tasty. At first I would equate them to Bring Me The Horizon, and then I sensed other influences. Good song, can’t wait to hear more.
• “Recognition” by Havenside – For some reason, Parkway Drive and For the Fallen Dreams have combined here in my mind to make Havenside. The transitions between fast-paced low-end riffs and the slower breakdowns are seamless, and the production value is great so I can hear everything going on! The breakdown after the talking portion of the song actually has me feeling their anger with the world. Unfortunately, the song was really short, but I enjoyed it to the fullest. I rarely appreciate hardcore like that, but it resonated with me.
• “Alcoholic (Bonus Track)” by Disaster Plan – Really catchy post hardcore – my guilty pleasure genre for sure. Solid riffs, the vocals have that air of desperation and pain that post hardcore thrives on, and the clean vocals still have a little scream in there followed by group vocals. It has all of the elements of a great song in this genre, and it sounds completely original. The songwriting quality and the production quality are both very high. The breakdown is completely unexpected, and it reminds me of something from Horse the Band or The Number Twelve Looks Like You. This band should check out Tera Melos or Pianos Become The Teeth, both very sick bands which this song brings back into my mind. One of my favorites on the CD.

Stayed:

• “Bury Your Knight” by Afraid of Heights – Interesting intro going into the first scream, the distortion on the guitars sounds just right. Vocals are very good, the clean and screaming pair is very effective with the cascading guitar riff. I like the riffs and the musicianship, but the flow of the song seems a little too formulaic. It’s very good, but it seems to me the band needs to hone their songwriting skills a little more and go a little more outside of the box on both the clean and metal sides of the spectrum. There’s a lot of potential here, though! I’d like to check back with this band soon.
• “Humanity’s End” by End Creation – It’s really difficult to appropriately review this because of the quality of the recording, but I do see some potential. A BTBAM-esque growl accompanied by death metal riffs from hell make this a solid track. The guitars are too overdriven, I think – that might be what’s keeping me from hearing the exact precision of the riffs. All things considered, though, it’s a pretty solid yet generic death metal track. The only thing that sets them apart is a 15-second slow part that could possibly be misinterpreted as humorous. I truly can’t tell if the generic sound is a result of the production or because the band hasn’t quite found that extra special something yet. Because of this, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and wait for some studio time.
• “Summer” by To Crown a King – Songs like this frustrate me. The band clearly has a lot of potential. The riffs are catchy enough, their song structure is nice, and the vocals are great (next to the auto-tuning, which I won’t even comment on because it makes me so angry; they went from something like a Parkway Drive to Attack Attack! in an instant because I can only associate the auto-tuning with crappy bands). However, nothing really happens in the five-minute, 29 second song. The structure which started so well in the beginning kind of became more predictable, riffs kept repeating themselves, and overall the song got boring at the four-minute mark. I was hoping, because this band seems talented from what I’m hearing their instruments do, that something would change drastically in the last minute, but it didn’t. I hear so much potential here, but they didn’t deliver all of it. Therefore, they’re staying in our hypothetical “league” for one more season.
• “Scream” by Setback – Very interesting drum beat for the first main riff, and I did not expect the vocal style that came out of nowhere. It’s almost as if classic metal is back and here to stay with these guys. Very catchy harmonized riff in the middle of the song. The song is getting a little too cliché to be one of my favorites (review-wise) on this album, but it deserves some credit. No other band is doing this right now;there were probably hundreds of bands like this about twenty years ago, but that’s neither here nor there. The band stays in the league, because I’d like to see what else they can do when given a chance. And if they’re ever around my town, I would most definitely pay for a ticket to see if they can deliver live before I make the final ruling.
• “No Photos, Please” by Versus Robots – I really like the main riff, but like most of the songs that are staying / getting relegated, there’s nothing original about the song structure, which leaves me pretty uninterested. The vocals seem out of sync with the breakdown as well. I like the pinch harmonics … sometimes. Every bar of a breakdown is a little overkill. In summary, though, it’s not a bad song. Like two or three other songs on this list, I find certain elements very enjoyable, there are just a few kinks that need to be worked out before moving to the next level.

Relegated:

• “A Moment in the Meantime” by A Violet Alibi – The first song on the entire compilation that has an actual “groove” to it, though I can’t exactly give it much credit. The clean vocals are very much hit-or-miss, and the keyboard is overpowering the guitars or even the drums. All I can hear in the first clean-singing part are cymbals, keyboard, and vocals – and that’s not good. Some of the riffs are pretty good, but the keys kind of push everything out of sync and place it on the blind noise part of the spectrum for me. Out of nowhere, the chorus comes back, and I’m more confused than ever. That’s about all I can say about this song. It’s not horrible, but at the same time, the rest of the songs on here stepped their game up, so to carry on the theme of Premier League, these guys are relegated.
• “Screams in Silence” by Kantiko – I was expecting something a little better to start off with, since I had to deal with the buildup for a good ten to fifteen seconds. The main riff is hardly unconventional; it’s just a little thrashier than what I’m used to hearing. The vocals are relatively good, considering what’s going on with the guitars and the drums. It’s not that they’re really bad musicians, it’s just that there’s no creativity that I can see. It’s a generic metalcore riff, with generic metalcore progressions. The breakdown at the end is a decent accent on a pretty bland song, but all in all, I’d need a second song or a full EP to see if this band has what it takes.
• “Protest” by 13^th Rebellion – I honestly do not know what to think, here. I heard this was a solo project, and I was anticipating something to the likings of Animals as Leaders or Chimp Spanner, or at least something in the djent realm. Based on the recording, this almost sounds like garage pop. Is that what I’m supposed to be hearing? Yes, the drums sound like they’re making an effort to be metal, but I honestly can’t tell. It’s cool – don’t get me wrong, I like some garage stuff – but for all intents and purposes, it isn’t what I’m looking for out of this.

 

That’s everybody! Special thanks go to Heads & Tails for giving me this promo CD. I thoroughly enjoyed the vast majority of it. To all those that stayed – if you’re willing to try to prove me wrong, send over something else at metalpedagogy@gmail.com! You can also like us on Facebook @The Metal Pedagogy.

-Geoff, the Nashvillain.