So, finally, after all this time it’s here! Butcher Babies second album, following up the EP “Uncovered” and the first full-length “Goliath”. As I wrote yesterday, I have really waited for this album for a long time, and when it finally dipped down… ah, the relief!
So, anyway, I had only heard “Monsters Ball” prior to getting the album itself, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of “Monsters Ball”, seeing it’s pretty… monotone, or how I should say it. It lacks melody, and I’m a sucker for melody and that is what pulled me in with songs as “Magnolia Blvd” on “Goliath”, for instance.
Sadly, much to my dismay, the album continued a lot this way. Maybe it’s me who’s just very new to the whole scene, but it all felt so plain. It could just as well have been the same song over and over again, except for a few exceptions. It’s a shame in a way – Carla and Heidi are doing a pretty solid job with the singing part, which makes it sad that the music is as plain as it is.
The exceptions, however, are pretty decent. The melancholic “Thrown Away” slows down the album quite a bit, and is a good “cut off” to the straight fast shredding that has occurred on the five previous songs, and perhaps my personal favorite on the entire album, “Never Go Back“, which brings me back a bit to “Magnolia Blvd” as far as arrangements go. “Never Go Back” is like, the little light on the album.
Sadly, right after this little breakdown, it goes right back into the monotone shredding and growling, I’m not lying when the only times I actually notice the song changing is because I start hearing that or that word which belongs to another song.
What makes me the most sad about the album is that there are some songs that has potential. They are almost there. Most songs has very well written lyrics, especially “Igniter” but they all fall short because of the plain music behind it. Then you have songs as “Dead Man Walking” and “The Cleansing” that has good sections, the choruses now that I think of it, which could have become so much better if the rest wasn’t so plain.
So, basically. It’s not even close to being as solid as “Goliath”. In my eyes, it’s a bit plain, but I want to emphasize that I’m not an expert on this genre, so maybe some of you think I’m completely dumbfounded based on what I said, but yeah. I had hoped they’d be brutal, but still have that melody that they had on “Goliath”, which is not present.
But who knows, maybe it’ll grow on me.
// Sara
Sara Hammerzmith 