It was bound to happen, I guess. Some band was going to clone
\nthe formula used by Linkin Park.<\/p>\n
I have yet to warm up to the concept of merging pseudo-rapped
\nverses with harmonized choruses – and I recognize that Linkin Park
\ndoes about as much singing as there is pseudo-rapping. Now, from
\nthe depths of Canada rises Headstrong, whose self-titled debut
\nalbum (scheduled for release in February) tries to capitalize on
\nthat formula with more than a touch of Rage Against The Machine
\nthrown in. (I’m working from an advance, “radio-friendly” version
\nof the disc for this review.)<\/p>\n
Musically, Headstrong is a tight unit who are able to pound out
\na very solid melody which is catchy. However, vocalist Kinna
\npossibly does this band the greatest disservice by insisting on the
\nconstant raps – a shame, really, since the harmonization is
\nexcellent. Listen to the first track (and song which launched the
\ngroup on FarmClub) “All Of The Above,” and discover the absolute
\npower of the sung choruses. Admittedly, this track is a powerhouse,
\nand rightfully won the group a load of fans – but it gets
\nrepetitive far too quickly on this disc.<\/p>\n
I’m not suggesting that
\nHeadstrong<\/i> is a bad disc. Indeed, far from it. There are
\nmoments on this disc which make me curious to see how far the group
\nwill go, as on “Swing Harder” and “Open Season”. But Headstrong
\nisn’t able to keep the momentum going as long as they’d like to,
\nand a good reason this is so is because the spoken-word vocals just
\ndon’t pack the same kind of power as even some of Headstrong’s
\ncontemporaries, like Rage Against The Machine. Tracks like
\n“Adriana” and “Hoodies And Hoods” sometimes feel like they’re
\ntrying to hold up the burden of living up to Headstrong’s early
\nhype, a burden which is proving to be almost Herculean in size.<\/p>\n
I’m also not suggesting that the pseudo-raps be banished in the
\nfuture. I
\nwill<\/i>, however, suggest that Headstrong not rely on them as
\nheavily as they do. Sometimes, a message can be delivered with an
\neven sharper edge if the message is wrapped in a powerful harmony.
\nIn Headstrong’s case, it’s something worth trying.<\/p>\n
Fans of Linkin Park and Rage Against The Machine will
\nundoubtedly be drawn to
\nHeadstrong<\/i>, though after a while, the listener might get the
\nfeeling that they’ve heard this all before. It’s worth hearing, but
\nI don’t think this disc has the power it could have had – and
\nthat’s what would keep people listening to it again and again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6692],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37298","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-headstrong","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37298","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=37298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37298"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37298"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}