Hades is a band that confounds and confuses me.<\/p>\n
On one hand, this New Jersey-based band takes the concept of
\nmetal and tries to put a new spin on the genre. At times on their
\nfifth album
\nThe Downside<\/i>, this works and it works well. On the other
\nhand, they fail to keep things interesting throughout the album,
\nleaving this disc in the end to fall a bit flat.<\/p>\n
That’s a shame, in many ways. For one thing, when you have
\nguests like S.O.D.’s Billy Milano (vocals on “Ground Zero
\n(reprise)”) and D.D. Verni (one of the numerous bassists, he plays
\non “Bitter Suite #1”), you expect the bar of excellence to be
\nraised. To Milano’s credit, he injects some life into the album –
\npity it’s right at the end.<\/p>\n
Hades – vocalist Alan Tecchio, guitarist\/vocalist\/bassist Dan
\nLoranzo, guitarist\/bassist Ed Fuhrman and drummer\/vocalist Dave
\nLescinsky – do intrigue me in that they could have easily gone with
\nthe pissed-off, balls-to-the-wall type of performance with song
\ntitles like “Hoax,” “Shove It” and “Hail To The Thief”. Instead,
\nthe band chooses to take a more controlled route with their
\nperformances, emphasizing the song and melodies and not necessarily
\nthe message.<\/p>\n
An interesting concept, no? Thing is, it works well in the first
\npart of
\nThe Downside<\/i>. Tracks like “Align The Planets” captivate the
\nlistener with their powerful musical statements, all the while the
\nmessages (some even back-handed commentaries) of themes of doom and
\ngloom make the listener think. Listening to to “Align The Planets,”
\nfor example, made me think of all the overhype regarding the
\nmillennium bug.<\/p>\n
But something happens along the way on
\nThe Darkside<\/i> – namely, the band hits a comfort level, and
\nthey appear to cruise through the rest of the album. As a result,
\ntracks like “It’s A Wonderful Lie” and “The Me That Might Have
\nBeen,” tracks that should have stood out on their own, get lost in
\na sea of distorted guitars. While the material is similar to the
\ntracks that grab the listener’s attention at the start of the
\nalbum, the challenge level of the material falls flat.<\/p>\n
\nThe Downside<\/i> is not a disappointment because of what it
\ncontains; rather, it’s a disappointment because of what could have
\nbeen. It’s still worth checking out, and I have no doubt that Hades
\nis primed to be a major player once metal makes its comeback. But
\nthey’re not there yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6275],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36517","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hades","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36517","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=36517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36517"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36517"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}