drakehJoin Date: 2008-09-08
Post Count: 7726 |
Drakeh Reviews-Rancid: Honor Is All We Know.
Hello, It’s me, Drakeh, Roblox’s 4th Best Music Critic.
For those of you who don’t know (pun intended) Rancid is a ska influenced punk band that debuted in 1992. They quickly became known for their mix of old (at that time) and new punk along with a heavy ska influence.The first two records gained a steady underground fan-base,and 1995’s ...And Out Come The Wolves became a huge rock success. The album still had a lot of the punk edge found in the first two albums,but had even more ska and pop influences,and god-damn was it good. It remains one the most popular punk albums to date,and It deserves all the praise it gets. The 1996 follow up,Life Won’t Wait was mostly pop-punk,and honestly it really lacked the strength and originality the last three albums had. In 2000,we saw one of the most curious releases by them, Rancid or Self-Titled 2000. It was fast,loud and snotty,in a good way. However, after that we saw two pretty flavorless and bland releases. And this new album was promised to be like 2000,and that was pretty exciting.
Well I didn’t really get what I expected,This albums sounds like a slightly washed out s/t 1993. Well, the part that had me the most worried was the struggling of tim’s voice,and he sounded,pretty good on this. I mean the best he could do,really,it sounds like he’s trying. Also a thing that rubbed me the wrong way,is Tim and Lars seemed to try to get back in some the lower and higher registers we saw in Wolves,but honestly they don’t sound too good and its just better when the sing normally. There are a few moments where tim does some keys that he really shouldn’t be doing,like in Already Dead,one of the worst songs on the album.The overall sound of the record is just ok,the drums sound a bit bland,and there doesn’t seem to be much with the guitar and bass. The guitar sounds a bit crunchy,like in most rancid albums. The bass seems pretty quiet,though it is their. Not the best mix,but definitely not the worst.
I’m going to be honest,rancid’s writing isn’t the strongest,and it shows here. There’s really not to much interesting about the lyrics,they don’t really stick out,for better,or for the worse. Most of the Lyrics are standard rancid fare,not to much to talk about their. Really it seems like they have already done most of the topics before. They do an ok job complementing the alright-to-good instrumentation. There’s some duds in here, like A Power Inside,which honestly sounds like a hair-metal ballad or something. Really wasn’t feeling that one.
This album wasn’t original...at all. It just sounds like a washed-out 1993 (which ended up being a strange blend of most of their sounds). There are some songs like Face-Up and Evil’s My Friend which end up sounding like Wolves b-sides. It’s all been done,and It seems like rancid’s just spinning their wheels,this has all been done before,better.
The only people I can recommend this to are rancid fans who were really liked the new sound,and probably the old. It’s not what we were originally promised,and the record’s just ok.
Favorite Songs, Evil’s My Friend,Back Where I Belong,
Least Favorite Songs, A Power Inside,Already Dead
5.5/10
Did you like it? Tell me what you think (and get the leak before it’s gone.) |