Artist: The Birthday Massacre
Title: Imaginary Monsters EP
Genre: Rock / New Wave / Synth Pop
Release Date: 12th August 2011
Label: Out Of Line
EP Review
THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE (TBM) has been around for quite some time, originally formed as a way for the friends to spend time together and invest their creative energy in making music, doing artwork and being, well, TBM. Having understood the importance of internet, they were one of those bands that didn’t endlessly complain about its ushering of the age of download and “ungrateful”, “unsupportive” fans but worked with it. Then I guess it bit them where it hurts and they’ve changed their mind to a degree about file sharing. However, even if they don’t know that it’s difficult times not just for the artist, but for the fan who struggles to allocate money to luxuries such as music above necessities, they still recognise the importance of the medium when it comes to presenting it in a visual environment. Their artwork is also not only distinctive enough to be instantly recognisable, but also able to seduce the hard core fans into buying the physical release (alongside the other incentives) as well as the touring to make it possible for them to live off their music. And whatever their new stance to sharing music for free is these days, they aired this single on their MySpace profile earlier in the month, so the chance is that you’ve heard this release already.
‘Forever’ has a feel of a TBM classic song. ‘Burn Away’ is a more interesting song for me, more layered, more atmospheric, conveying more complexity, the melody digs itself quite deep into memory. The distortion gives something like a smudged quality to the sound that is further enticing. ‘Left Behind’ is wonderfully dark. After these the remixes follow. The first two ‘Pale -KEVVY MENTAL & DAVE OGILVIE Rubber Unicorn Mix’ and ‘Control - Tweaker Mix’ - there’s really nothing very special about run of the mill kind of remixes, the songs themselves were more interesting than the work that had been done to them. From the last three the SKOLD Mix of ‘Pins And Needles’ was by far the most exciting. It has harder sound, closer to Industrial, more attention-grabbing and fresh and invites re-listens with ease. ‘Shallow Grave’ happens to be here twice, first COMBICHRIST ‘Good for Her’ Mix and in ‘ASSEMBLAGE 23 Mix’. Both are quite good and appealing, the former is expectedly harder though for COMBICHRIST contrastingly soft version still, the latter more dance-floor friendly. However they didn’t hit my expectations of them to the roof, but then my expectations were probably too high for those two remixes anyway, so I deem them very good quality as it goes.
The whole single is worth checking out and is a great listen with just enough to offer to enjoy, though I think that in time it’d be collecting bit of dust, a fate of majority of singles. I’m not entirely sure it’s given me a hard enough kick to get their album; I’d rely more on strength of their name than strength of this single.
Tracklist
01. Forever – 3.56
02. Burn Away – 3.43
03. Left Behind – 2.36
04. Pale (Kevvy Mental & Dave Ogilvie Rubber Unicorn Mix) – 4.09
05. Control (Tweaker Mix) – 3.32
06. Shallow Grave (Combichrist ‘Good for Her’ Mix) – 4.33
07. Pins And Needles (SKOLD Mix) – 5.01
08. Shallow Grave (Assemblage 23 Mix) – 4.24
Line-up
Chibi - Vocals
Rainbow - Guitars/Programming/Vocals
M. Falcore - Guitars
Rhim - Drums
Owen - Keyboards
Nate Manor - Bass
Websites
http://www.thebirthdaymassacre.com / http://www.myspace.com/thebirthdaymassacre
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7.5
Sound: 8
Total: 7.75 / 10
Comments powered by CComment