Possibly the toughest thing that anyone can do with the
\nself-titled debut from Echobrain is to not expect to hear Metallica
\nMk. II. It’s an honest trap to fall in; after all, this is the
\nfirst major effort featuring former Metallica bassist Jason
\nNewsted. But Newsted and his bandmates – guitarist\/vocalist Dylan
\nDonkin and drummer Brian Sagrafena – wisely stay away from the
\nstyle of music that Metallica is known for.<\/p>\n
If only Echobrain knew exactly which style of music they wanted
\nto follow; this 10-song effort is all over the map musically, and
\nis more confusing than watching
\nTwin Peaks<\/i> with cheat sheets. There are moments this group
\nseems like it will all click into place; pity they don’t occur more
\noften.<\/p>\n
For the most part,
\nEchobrain<\/i> is a collection of listless alternative-jazz songs
\nwhich puts an emphasis on minimalistic performances – almost
\nworrying that any real effort might seem like trying to capture the
\nlimelight of Newsted’s old band. There is no denying that Donkin is
\na talented guitarist, and that Sagrafena is a solid enough rhythm
\nsection. One does wish, though, that there was a little more
\nexcitement in their playing.<\/p>\n
And Newsted? His bass work is treated almost the same way it was
\nin Metallica – namely, buried in the back of the mix. Granted, had
\nNewsted stood out in the mix in the forefront, people would
\ncomplain that he was showboating, trying to capitalize on his
\nprevious fame. Fair enough – but when Newsted’s bass lines are
\nturned up, as they are on “Cryin’ Shame”, the sound becomes that
\nmuch richer.<\/p>\n
It’s not that
\nEchobrain<\/i> is a failure out of the box; indeed, some kudos
\nhave to be given to the band for refusing to take the easy road
\nwith their music. But far too often, what comes forth from the
\nspeakers is anything but interesting. Tracks like “Adrift,” “We Are
\nGiants” and “SuckerPunch” are far too lethargic for their own good,
\ndaring not to breathe even one note of electric free will. It all
\nsounds, at times, far too mechanincal. Face it, if you didn’t have
\nthe liner notes in front of you, you’d probably miss the guest
\nappearances from ex-Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin (“Spoonfed”)
\nand Metallica axe-slinger Kirk Hammett (“SuckerPunch”).<\/p>\n
Personal differences not factored in, it took a lot of guts for
\nNewsted to leave Metallica and to enter into an entirely new
\nmusical world that is Echobrain. But musically, this band has yet
\nto come into their own, and Newstead’s talents, like they were in
\nMetallica, are underutilized far too often. Odds are that there
\nwill be some wonderful material coming from this trio. But it’s far
\ntoo early in their career to expect that magic, and
\nEchobrain<\/i> definitely lacks it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6718],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-37341","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-echobrain","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37341","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=37341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37341"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}