Review:

on 2011-10-15 Bertman Said:

There was a time when the Epitaph label was its own guarantee of quality. You may not be crazy about every single release, but Brett Gurewitz didn't sign crap bands. So I'm not sure how to explain this turd in the musical punchbowl.



Falling In Reverse sound and look like a really bad L.A. Guns offshoot, made even more annoying by the inclusion of a keyboard player, or a guitar synth. There also seems to be some musical schizophrenia going on here. Whenever the keyboards become prominent in a song, it's musically reminiscent of Asia (The band, not the continental landmass), which is fine if you are actually in a 80's prog rock band, not a bunch of really sad metal heads who seem to have spent more time in front of the mirror perfecting their oh-so- disheveled look rather than focusing on songwriting.



Then there are some of the guitar leads. In Raised by Wolves and I'm Not a Vampire Jacky Vincent steps up and delivers some sharp, quick as lightning, fret board workouts that while interesting and more than capable, don't fit in with the songs. There will be these extra angry 8 measures in-between a verse and a chorus and it seems almost to have been dropped in by another band from another record.



The songs are lyrically insipid and tiresome. I'm Not a Vampire should have been a clever song about the presence of bloodsucking fiends in pop culture, but we're not that lucky. Good Girls Bad Guys is self explanatory and the title is the best thing about the track.



Pick up the Phone and Dont Mess with Ouija Boards are bright spots on this otherwise tedious CD. Ouija Boards is another great example of a song that mostly sounds like a completely different and significantly better band. They at least sound like they mean whatever it is they are wailing about on this one. Caught Like a Fly sounds like they are butchering an otherwise clever and underappreciated Alice Cooper song.

None of this is enough to rescue this pathetic collection.



Singer Ronnie Radke looks and sounds like every I'm too cool for the mainstream wanna-be hipster working the counter at a Blockbuster, who slips flyers to his bands gigs on the sly in between DVD's to girls he thinks are cute and/or might put out. His vocal delivery is snarky, as though he doesn't even believe the stupid tripe flying out of his mouth.



The Drug in Me is You is a good enough reason to stay sober or go to the closest rehab and book the Lindsey Lohan suite. Falling in Reverse can't fall into obscurity soon enough.


Rating: 1/10