Obviously when reviewing an album, the music absolutely comes first. You should be able to just throw on a CD regardless of album titles and band names and give it a good spin. But when a band name is so bad, immediately laying down a level of cynicism, disappointment and all manner of sighing, it just doesn’t help the cause.
OK, now we’ve got that out of the way let’s get into the real meat of the album Tarassis (Dead End Exit) – is this an album full of stonking tracks or does the quality of music equate to the band name? Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is the latter.
It actually opens with a whole load of promise, as ‘Hero In Me’ makes a real statement with pummeling riffs and a strong interchange between the softer and harsher vocals delivering a real Metalcore style a la Bury Tomorrow. But it spirals, and really badly spirals, downhill from there. Every track just sounds like poorly delivered electronics-infused hardcore music, and a confused amalgamation of influences going on, which really hinders the music.
Almost every song on the album follows exactly the same structure; a mysterious opening building into a crescendo of heavy beatdown riffs. Considering just how many bands there are around at the moment delivering music springing from influences in Hardcore and Metalcore, there just needs to be an ounce of originality and something unique to try and allow you to stick out from the mix – frankly dEMOTIONAL just have not delivered this in any way.
4.0/10
TOM DONNO