{"id":42067,"date":"2010-08-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/disconnected-2\/"},"modified":"2010-08-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-08T00:00:00","slug":"disconnected-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/disconnected-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Disconnected"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dry Cell and their first album, Disconnected<\/i>, have a convoluted story.\u00a0 Part of it was already told in a 2002 story in The New York Times, \u201cYoung Band, Derailed Dream<\/a>,\u201d penned by Laura Holson.\u00a0 This story tells of troubles with Warner Brothers records and with distinguishing themselves from acts like Linkin Park.\u00a0 Nearly eight years later, we can see the full effect of the story Ms. Holson told.\u00a0 The band has broken up, reformed, and now appears to be finished for good, with former lead singer Jeff Gutt fronting Detroit act Band With No Name. Disconnected<\/i> and a retrospective collection album on iTunes are all that is left of a band that once appeared primed for mainstream success.<\/p>\n

In an era of Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, and Papa Roach dominating rock radio, this disc managed to stand apart from the crowd by its focus on catchy melodies.\u00a0 It remains one of the most hook-laden albums of the nu-metal era because Dry Cell never sacrificed the melody for the sake of being heavy. It would\u2019ve been unnecessary if they had, though, for Jeff Gutt\u2019s strong yet scratchy voice adds an aggressive tone without compromising the quality of the songwriting. And the songwriting is quite good considering the youth of the group, in which Gutt was the only member in his twenties at the time. While the lyrics do not live up to the music, the band\u2019s belief in their material keeps you listening even when the lyrics dip into mediocrity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cSlip Away\u201d demonstrates the vocal interplay between Gutt and bassist Judd Gruenbaum, and even also between Gutt and himself, thanks to the magic of the studio. The trading of phrasing in many of these songs injects energy into the album and also makes for great car ride duets. \u201cUnder The Sun\u201d has a heavy, chugging riff as its backbone, but it softens into a melancholic, almost tender song about being unsure after ending a relationship.\u00a0 \u201cBody Crumbles\u201d brought Dry Cell clout after it was featured in the video game Madden 2003 and the film Queen\u00a0 Of The Damned<\/i>. While it isn\u2019t the best track on the record, it is a catchy listen.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The title track is better and has one of the most memorable refrains. \u201cOrdinary\u201d is less blistering than the album\u2019s norm, but it is one of the best vocally while, on the other hand, demonstrating the band\u2019s immaturity. In the otherwise passable outro, the lyrics, \u201cIt\u2019s not easy and it\u2019s hard\u201d is used to bring the song back to lyrical root beginning each chorus. A more experienced band would have kept a laughable lyric out of the ending to a memorable song. The acoustic reprise of \u201cLast Time\u201d that follows is a more than respectable closer. It ends the album with a moving and surprisingly gentle take on the pain of adolescence.<\/p>\n

Disconnected<\/i> is a tantalizing record.\u00a0 It shows a band with gallons of talent that will likely never be fulfilled. Like drinking fine wine or whiskey that have not yet aged, this album will make you wonder what could have been if the flashes of brilliance were fully realized. Yet it is solid on its own merit and well worth owning, even if just for raucous road trips duets. With Disconnected<\/i> blaring out the windows, I guarantee you and your friends will show up at your destination hoarse but smiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":30405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8609],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-42067","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dry-cell","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42067","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\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42067"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}