Dawn Of Ashes - 'Farewell To The Flesh - EP' (metalblade) 0.5/5

Oh dear no.... I hate albums like this. When I write reviews I do try to find something good to mention about a record no matter how bad it is, but sometimes you get something to write about with no redeeming features what so ever, and this new EP from LA death metal outfit Dawn of Ashes is one of those.

This is another case of a band jumping on the new and oh so trendy dance-rock fusion bandwagon. There are eight tracks on offer here, three new tracks (well two and one mercifully short and pointless synthy outro) and five remixes of tracks from the bands earlier albums.

I'll start with the two new songs. Farewell To The Flesh and Torture Device (part 2) aren't that bad songs over all, however any enjoyment you may have got from these cuts is immediately shot down by some terribly shocking production; the drums sound like they are in fact boxes of matches shaken in time inside a large biscuit tin, the guitars sound like a couple of bored wasps trapped in a jam jar, the vocals are flat and one dimensional and the whole lot is buried behind an over loud and all intrusive one finger synth line which washes over and at times drowns out everything else on offer. Believe me it's that bad, I've had demos from groups of 14 year school kids recorded on lap -tops in bedrooms that are better produced and mixed than this.

Then we have the remixes, five track, but only two songs, (Carnal Consummation In The Empty Space being murdered no less than FOUR times is quick succession). Once again we have what may have been once good songs totally wrecked by drum machine monkeyisms, mindless insertion of bleeping noises and inane repetitive patterns that after just a few seconds have this reviewer choking down the bile and reaching for the off button. OK it could be that I'm an old hippy and just don't get dance music (I never have done), or maybe I don't do the right drugs; but I like my metal rocking, brutal and metallic not sold out and diluted for the pilled up rave heads.

In short this is one of the worst releases I've encountered for a while, and one I will be deleting from my hard drive and trying to forget about.

For fans of.. inane dance music.

KoRn - 'The Path Of Totality' (roadrunner) 3.5/5

Anyone who has read back through the reviews in this blog will already know of my utter and intense dislike for dance music, so when I read that KoRn were teaming up with a load of drum machine monkeys to do a full album I was filled with a more than a little dread and bile. After all Korn themselves are a band I can take or leave at the best of times, and the thought of having to listen to a full album their stuff remixed for the pilled up dance-floor massive was more than bit off putting. Still Roadrunner were good enough to send me a copy and ask for my honest opinion, so here goes....

Ok on first play I gotta say this isn't as bad as I was prepared for. At least what we have on offer here are real songs, not endless drum loops with three second sampled hooks dropped in at random, and to be honest some of the songs here are fairly good, for KoRn tracks. The opener Chaos Lives In Everything is probably the best cut on offer here, Like most of the album it comes over  little like Rammstein and features some nice metal riffage and even the dub-step drum beats don't annoy too much. And so the album continues. Other high points that suprised me a bit were the Peter Gabrielesque Sanctuary and the dark industrial grind of Way Too Far.

In fact there are only three places on the entire album that had me reaching for the next track button, the two Skrillex produced tracks, Narcissistic Cannibal & Get Up, where fair competent songs are ruined by scratch mix masturbation and pointless random drum beat breakdowns; and the closer Bleeding Out, where what starts out as a nice downbeat chilled out bit of post rock ambiance is ruined by over complex drum beats, naff euro trance synth breakdowns and a mix that buries the vocals into a wall of acid dub whatever drum machine monkeyisms and a strange and pointless bagpipe sample sequence.

I'm still suprised I made it to the end of the record with out wanting to throw up, or smash up the CD player, and for me to say that really is something. Don't get me wrong, this has done nothing to win me over to dance fusion, or make me a KoRn fan, but at least its something in that genre that I can listen to without a psychotic reaction.

Not as bad as you would expect.

For fans of... Pendulum, Rammstien etc...

As I Lay Dying - 'Decas' (metalblade) 1.5/5

Hum, this latest offering from California metalcore merchants As I Lay Dying is a bit of a weird one. Basically it can be split into three sections, Three new tracks, three covers and then five remixes from their back catalogue.

Things start of promisingly enough. The three original new tracks are good enough slices of passably good metalcore that tick all the right boxes for the genre; nice crunchy pit friendly riffs, pig grunt verses, big clean harmony choruses, nothing too earth shattering over all but good enough to pass muster, especially Moving Forward, which is raised above the ordinary with some impressive guitar work

Then we move onto the covers section, and things here are not so hot. Now I'm of the opinion that classic tracks should only be covered if your gonna go and do something interesting with them, and sadly that is not the case here. The rendition of the Slayer classic War Ensemble comes over like an iffy tribute band, Judas Priests Hellion / Electric Eye is a bold attempt that is destined to fail, the Hellion works well enough but Electric Eye falls flat as with core style pig grunts on the verse just doesn't work and the clean vocals on the bridge bring back horrible nightmares of the Ripper Owens days (shudder). The Descendants Coffee Mug  is a nice bit of hardcore thrashage, and I'm not that familiar with the original so will refrain from making any more comments on that front.

Then we have the remix section. This starts off surprisingly enough with a medley of old AILD tracks entitled Beneath The Encasing that is pretty nifty and is probably the best track on offer on the entire album. However then things really go tits up.I have never got on with dance music, I find it messy and the inane repetitive drum pattens bring a psychotic reaction in me. It really does make me want to commit acts of brutal and bloody violence on who is ever producing the racket in order to make them stop.

I did force myself to listen to the last four tracks here to try to get a handle on them, but I only ended up feeling sick and wanting to turn the mindless crap off. If you like this sort of thing then more power to you but as for me.. I like my rock rocking and not butchered by monkeys with drum machines.

Over all this album is a bit of a waste of time if you ask me, and not one I'll be keeping in the collection or giving air time to.

for fans of... As I Lay Dying (everyone else should give this one a miss)