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Review: Jack Foley
IT'S often the case that heavy rock/metal bands produce their
better material when they slow things down.
And this is exactly the case with Breed 77, Britain's very own
Pearl Jam wannabes, as exemplified in tracks such as current single,
The River.
In slow-building form, Breed 77 take on an altogether different
persona - one which is capable of rising to the heights of bands
like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden with a more accomplished style
of songwriting.
The River offers terrific value for the rock crowd, blistering
guitars, yearning vocals and an expansive soundscape which even
brings in a string element towards the end.
But it is quickly offset by more head-banging, headache-inducing
material, such as World's On Fire and The Only Ones,
which sandwich it in a noisy rock doorstop.
Countless bands can thrash about the place, delivering the adrenaline-propelled
guitar solos of metal monsters such as Metallica, but it is the
ability to deliver the odd chart-friendly gem that sometimes marks
them out as something worth writing about.
Hence, Breed 77's Cultura is something of a mixed bag
- flitting between interesting and just plain ordinary with equal
measure.
It's packed with the same sort of themes that are guaranteed
to appeal to the disaffected teens of their generation, with lyrics
such as 'we are the ones who got left behind', but it's also capable
of appealing to a much wider listener base.
It also seems tailored towards breaking into America, with some
of of its heavier material (and overcooked vocals) matching the
headier excesses of the Metallica brigade.
But as a detester of heavy metal, this merely serves to have
me reaching for the off button.
I much prefer Cultura when it emulates the likes of Pearl Jam
(of whom I am a fan) and Nickelback, as in tracks such as Resurrection
and the acoustically-driven Numb.
But most of the time, sadly, Cultura left me feeling like
the title of that aforementioned track, that is to say, numb and
in need of some headache tablets.
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