2Side1BRAIN - Blood Eyes Red

[Zeus 7997]

Score: | I like my coffee with two cubes of sugar and a lot less polish.

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I almost gave up on this album on the disappointing introductory twangs four seconds in, but I told Augie that I owed him at least a half-decent review so I stuck it out. Much to the chagrin of my sassy side, this album improved quickly enough that I could finish it and give a fair, unbiased review. Or as close to a fair, unbiased review as I get.
 

Eyes Blood Red is one of the only things that reminds me that this band is Japanese. A large majority of the time, this sounds like radio friendly rock with just enough aggression to make a soccer mom snub her nose and change the station back to Radio Disney. This is mostly the fault of the vocalist, who sounds generic in the sense that I feel like I've heard him as the frontman for many other nameless bands many a shopping mall has forcibly impressed into my ear canals over the years. There is no unique qualities in either his clean vocals or harsh vocals that separates him from anyone else so while I can't say that he's terrible I can say that he isn't memorable.

 

I dropped the mall bit on purpose, because if you prodded me into describing what I just heard I would describe it as "mallcore". The derogatory term would aptly describe many facets of this band's sound but there's just enough different in each song that I would drop the source off at the doorstep of the raunchiest Hot Topic, except not really because the music that plays in Hot Topic is almost universally awful. So I wouldn't really be able to find something like this anywhere other than MTV with a focus on commercial, easy going rock with a penchant for pulling the rug out from underneath you, but at least it's not associated with red and black studded jeans that make me feel oh so misunderstood because I'm fifteen and my hormones are raging.

 

Because that's truly what this album is to me - misunderstood. I don't make it a habit to listen to music styled like this because it doesn't do much for me. I can't drill down and get out of it what Augie does. I do note the very present guitars and drumwork. The guitars are so present that sometimes the bass can disappear. I also don't like the tone of the bass pedal. Other than that, the album just shines, even if it's a little too "loud". 2Side1BRAIN sounds like they're right in front of me when the album is playing and this is a quality I do not get out of too many albums, especially ones that aren't even in lossless. With some more dynamic range, this album would be ear candy for my setup.

 

What drags the entire album down and beats it with a dull brick until it gasps for mercy are the predictable transitions. Every single transition in this album is either the sound of the void creeping in before the band puts on their angry faces and jumps into a breakdown or an explosion back into the chorus where the vocalist digs down deep and sings with respectable English. The breakdowns can definitely go and be replaced with something more interesting because they all sound the same. They also don't fit with the overall vibe the band is working with. If there weren't the guitar tricks and the sonic quality of the tracks themselves to content me, I would have turned this off by track three. The monotony can become overbearing and the album ends just when you begin to notice. One or two tracks more and the score would have really suffered for it.

 

Oh, but how do I feel about the album? It's 'aight, I guess.