I hate reviews like this…<\/p>\n
One of the most difficult tasks any music reviewer has is taking
\na debut release by a band that shows quite a bit of promise and
\ntearing into it. You see all the strengths the band has, but you
\nalso have to point out what you saw as the weaknesses. And while I
\nhope bands who read these reviews see my words as constructive
\ncriticism, they most likely consider me to be an asshole by the
\ntime they’ve finished the review.<\/p>\n
With this in mind, I must state that the debut release by
\nPhoenix-based Crushed shows off a band that will be quite powerful
\none day – once they decide which direction their music should
\ngo.<\/p>\n
You see, the band prides itself on a mixture of clean guitar
\nsounds (provided by Mike Halland) and a crunching riff (provided by
\nguitarist\/vocalist Mark Lauer). When Crushed wants to, they can
\ncrank up a groove that rivals Pantera and Helmet, or they can
\ncreate a nice textured melody that dares any pop song to follow
\nsuit. The problem is that the band wants to be able to enjoy both
\nstyles of music equally – this tends to weaken both camps.<\/p>\n
Lauer’s vocals defy true categorization; one minute he sounds
\nlike Layne Staley, the next minute Mike Patton, the next minute
\nGordon Gano. This tends to throw the listener for a loop, as they
\ncan’t really settle into a pattern with the album and get used to
\none vocal style.<\/p>\n
The grooves, along with the song crafting, are what make
\nCrushed<\/i> so wonderful. Bassist Michael Brown and drummer Jeff
\nGarten lay down a rhythm base that is simply incredible, though
\nGarten occasionally throws in some double bass work when it’s not
\nreally needed. Cuts like “Crescent Draggin Wagon,” “Lit” and
\n“Incandescence” had my 18-month-old dancing in the living room.<\/p>\n
The best cut on this album, ironically, is the one the band
\ndidn’t write – a cover of “Brimstone In A Barren Land.” It is here
\nthat the amalgam of soft and crunchy guitar, along with one hell of
\na bass groove, truly mesh the best. This is not to say that the
\noriginals are bad; it’s just that I found this song to be more
\nentertaining.<\/p>\n
In fact, this leads me to the main problem I had with
\nCrushed<\/i> – it tends to jump around so much style-wise that I
\nfound myself often losing focus. I tried on several different
\noccasions to plow through this album, but often I found myself
\nunconsciously tuning it out by the time “Whistling Past The
\nGraveyard” was kicking in. (I consider myself to be a patient
\nlistener, but if I’m losing interest, one wonders what the typical
\nlistener would do.)<\/p>\n
Does this mean that Crushed isn’t a good band? Hardly – I do
\nbelieve that given a fair shake, these guys have a chance of
\nclaiming the alterna-metal throne from bands like Alice In Chains
\nand hitting the big time. But for them to accomplish this, they
\nneed to decide on one music style and, for the most part, stick
\nwith it. Once they do this, they’ll have my full attention from the
\nmoment I slap the disc in the player for the first time. But this
\nis something that will come with time and experience – formed just
\nfive years ago, Crushed is still a very young band that needs to
\nearn a few battle scars.<\/p>\n
\nCrushed<\/i> does have some moments that set it apart from other
\nalbums in its genre, and for a freshman effort, it’s okay. But I
\nhear the possibility of what could be – which both excites me and
\nmakes me wish they had implemented it on this album. Still, it’s
\nworth checking out.<\/p>\n
Sorry, guys – I don’t say it to be an asshole… I say it
\nbecause I care about what I listen to, unlike many mainstream
\ncritics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5863],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-35781","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-crushed","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35781"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35781"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}