Albums•November 29, 2011•7,950 views

Seemless Seemless

01. Intro 02. Something's Got To Give 03. Wanderer 04. Soft Spoken Sanity 05. Endless 06. The Crisis 07. Lay My Burden Down 08. War/Peace 09. In Time of Need 10. All is Not Lost 11. In This Life 12. Maintain (bonus)

2005 Equal Vision Records

Our score 6

by Sean Loiselle

4/6/2005

I think everyone knows Seemless' vocalist is from Killswitch Engage, which I liked. They have other members from Overcast (which I liked, as well) and Shadows Fall (which I have honestly never heard).The deal is that they're playing rock and roll. It's is a nice departure for these guys musically, I'm sure. However, I really have to call their influences into question. The disc starts out with an 'Intro,' which has become possibly the most asinine and trite convention in music. I'd rather listen to one big dumb breakdown than one more pretentious static "introduction." I wonder who the hell thinks it's a great idea to just slap some annoying feedback and throw some drums in the back to introduce you're album. You're not winning over any fans. That diatribe aside, the track kicks off with "Something's Got to Give." This song serves as a sort of paradigm for the rest of the album. Not to say that their song writing is formulaic or monotonous, but once you finish listening to this you'll be able to full judge whether or not you find this to be a worthwhile investment of time. The beginning of the song sound like every other radio-rock Nickelback/Creed/Staind/Chevelle band out there. After that little interlude, the guitars are pretty chunky, with a tone that is decidedly a Queens of the Stone Age kind of rock vibe. The riffing is pretty basic, which after a point gets a bit incessant. After vacillating between hard rock and soft rock Jesse slips back into some of his easily distinguishable Killswitch Engage scream for the last portion of the track. The music here could easily be a Harkonen track with the gain turned down, and it piqued my interest. However, while I was hopeful that the rest of the disc would pick up and become a little bit more engaging, it just never really happened for me. Throughout the rest of the disc there is some interesting moments scattered throughout. "The Wanderer" at times sounds a lot (again) like Queens of the Stone Age, but playing it much safer. Every song on here could easily be a disposable radio hit, which is a good thing for the band I guess. I'm sure with enough promotion and touring these guys could get signed to a major label. They teeter on the brink of being too edgy, but they are quickly pulled back by more commercially acceptable pieces - like the sissy whisper of "I am my own worst enemy," on "The Wanderer" instantly followed by Soundgarden-ish speaking/singing through a vocal effect board on "Soft Spoken Sanity." They even stay on the tried and true course of radio rockdom by throwing in an instrumental ballad toward the end of the disc with "All is Not Lost." Bottom Line: It's hard to draw a verdict on this. I'm not someone to say that if something isn't produced with underground ethics that it's necessarily bad. And this isn't necessarily bad. Sometimes the music itself catches me wishing that someone trying to do a mid-90s style over it. The bits and pieces I can pick out of the lyrics aren't anything straying from the uniform path of post-modern psychology and its trials. If these guys just picked it up a notch and didn't try to get played on hard rock radio, they'd really have something here. Not bad, not great. Just in the middle.

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therighteousruler_ 4/6/2005 10:10:23 PM

this review was boring to me

Seemless Seemless

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