Album Details

• Artist: The Birthday Massacre
• Album: Pins And Needles
• Label: Metropolis
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2010-10-24

If you're not familiar with this goth/electronic/power pop band, you have many chances to get to know them. That is a mixed blessing; The Birthday Massacre have a great sense of vampy, goth fun, can rock with a heaviness that is surprising ("In The Dark"), and have 80s melodic synth pop down pat ("Always). What they don't have is a lot of variety. "Pins and Needles" sticks to those two styles, sometimes in the same song. Still, it is a style that is engaging and rocking, so give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they are on the way to creating something really memorable.

The title track, along with "Shallow Grace" and "Sleepwalking," are the best tracks, mainly because when the Massacre let it rip, they unleash a barrage of heavy, stoopid riffs that would turn the heads of any respectable Iggy or Earth fan. All the other songs are good too, they just blend together after awhile. Stressing the heavy riffs more often is advice worthy of any band, but here it really would make sense.

"Pins and Needles" is a campy romp that occasionally rips your face off. Vocalist Cristina Scabbia and company are endearing, and even though their shtick gets tiring at times, monster sounds are always on the way to wake you wide up!

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