Walls Of Jericho Redemption

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Reviewed by: Nick   //   Published: 5/16/2008

Detroit metalcore band Walls of Jericho has pulled quite the one-eighty for their latest release, an acoustic EP produced by Slipknot's Corey Taylor.Candace Kucsulain has traded her piercing screams in for mellow singing. Subdued acoustic strumming prevails over breakdowns and metallic riffs. A few moments of ballad-esque drumming have taken the place of the band's double bass heavy norm. And all of these elements add up to one blatantly obvious conclusion: this record shouldn't exist.

This is simply some of the most poorly composed acoustic music ever put to tape. It is merely a collection of acoustic nu-metal ballads destined for the local hard rock radio station. This doesn't just sound similar to Evanescence; it very well could be Evanescence. Overweight pale kids in oversized Seether shirts will be making fun of fans of this release. At least the nu-metal kids were all over this shit when it came out in 2003 and didn't have to wait until 2008 for Walls of Jericho to transform into an Amy Lee rip-off act.

But perhaps this record isn't a complete surprise. Walls of Jericho certainly hinted at something this deplorable with the track "No Saving Me," a ballad from 2006's With Devils Amongst Us All that shows up once again on Redemption. Yet that doesn't make this EP any easier to digest, especially with tracks like "Ember Drive" and "My Last Stand" sporting painful attempts at string-accompanied epic builds and abysmal lyrics like, "I will fight / Risk my life / Give my heart to find my home." And don't forget the disc's spotlight track, an atrocious duet with Corey Taylor, seemingly destined for the soundtrack of a one-star Vin Diesel movie.

Bottom Line: Stick to writing metalcore. At least that's more tolerable than this.

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