eOne Music
2011
1. Antihero
2. Bonesaw
3. You Look Like Hell
4. Sally
5. Holy Mother
7. I Am No One
8. Memphis Scarecrow
9. Selling My Soul
10. Death On Two Legs
11. Let Me Be Your Nightmare
12. NYC (Devil's Playground)
13. Alive!
14. My Way
The Bronx Casket Co. are a side project I've always enjoyed. For those who don't know this is the side band of OverKill bassist DD Verni. Up to this point I've liked all their albums and it made for an interesting and different musical style for DD as the band has had sort of a gothic metal flavor.
News of this new album from Bronx Casket Co. made me nervous as soon as I saw that their vocalist for all of their previous efforts, Myke Hideous, would not be involved however. A vocalist change is a cause for concern for pretty much any band in my book and whenever you see a backup vocalist like DD Verni thinking he'll take over leads that is additional cause for worry.
Well the good news is DD Verni is a pretty decent singer, if a different one. Certainly he is not the gothy sounding vocalist I'm used to at the helm of this band, but never during this album do I think he can't handle lead vocal duties in general. Whether he's appropriate considering the past vocal sound is another question entirely. There is also a secondary problem which is common with a vocalist change... a change in direction. I don't think this band could be categorized as gothic metal anymore and indeed metal itself is a bit of a stretch. I guess if you consider industrial or numetal to be metal genres, but that's pretty debatable at best. This is certainly heavy... in fact it's probably heavier than any album they've done, but in a pretty modern way.
What we have here is a band that less resembles heavy gothic metal and brings the modern undertones the band has always kind of had up to the front. Rob Zombie is a fairly obvious comparison and maybe a less industrial/effects laden Ministry at times. Personally, I don't mind this sound and even like some things in this sort of vein. Hell I'd count myself as a White Zombie fan, but this is not what I expected or necessarily wanted from Bronx Casket Co.
On Antihero it seems to me that the depth of this band is gone. All the songs are straight forward, the variation between lighter and more somber moments mixed with upbeat ones is gone. The songs here just don't carry the kind of atmosphere, somber tones, etc that the past material had and they all lack personality. All these tracks plows straight ahead and a glaring problem is the lack of variation between songs. As I listened to this album I never hated what I was hearing, but I never really loved anything either as all the songs basically had the same straight forward sound, similar tempo, etc. Part of the problem seems to be that DD isn't capable of much range as a singer even if his sound is decent. Basically, Bronx Casket Co. now sounds like the kind of band I wouldn't mind if they were the opener before a band I actually wanted to see.
In the end Antihero is a little Too easily digestible. This kind of feels like radio 'metal' with each song trying too hard to be a single in the most typical sort of way. Antihero could easily be lumped in with a number of modern rock/'metal' bands and be forgotten by the actual metal scene entirely.
Highlights: None
Rating - 2.5/5
2. Bonesaw
3. You Look Like Hell
4. Sally
5. Holy Mother
7. I Am No One
8. Memphis Scarecrow
9. Selling My Soul
10. Death On Two Legs
11. Let Me Be Your Nightmare
12. NYC (Devil's Playground)
13. Alive!
14. My Way
The Bronx Casket Co. are a side project I've always enjoyed. For those who don't know this is the side band of OverKill bassist DD Verni. Up to this point I've liked all their albums and it made for an interesting and different musical style for DD as the band has had sort of a gothic metal flavor.
News of this new album from Bronx Casket Co. made me nervous as soon as I saw that their vocalist for all of their previous efforts, Myke Hideous, would not be involved however. A vocalist change is a cause for concern for pretty much any band in my book and whenever you see a backup vocalist like DD Verni thinking he'll take over leads that is additional cause for worry.
Well the good news is DD Verni is a pretty decent singer, if a different one. Certainly he is not the gothy sounding vocalist I'm used to at the helm of this band, but never during this album do I think he can't handle lead vocal duties in general. Whether he's appropriate considering the past vocal sound is another question entirely. There is also a secondary problem which is common with a vocalist change... a change in direction. I don't think this band could be categorized as gothic metal anymore and indeed metal itself is a bit of a stretch. I guess if you consider industrial or numetal to be metal genres, but that's pretty debatable at best. This is certainly heavy... in fact it's probably heavier than any album they've done, but in a pretty modern way.
What we have here is a band that less resembles heavy gothic metal and brings the modern undertones the band has always kind of had up to the front. Rob Zombie is a fairly obvious comparison and maybe a less industrial/effects laden Ministry at times. Personally, I don't mind this sound and even like some things in this sort of vein. Hell I'd count myself as a White Zombie fan, but this is not what I expected or necessarily wanted from Bronx Casket Co.
On Antihero it seems to me that the depth of this band is gone. All the songs are straight forward, the variation between lighter and more somber moments mixed with upbeat ones is gone. The songs here just don't carry the kind of atmosphere, somber tones, etc that the past material had and they all lack personality. All these tracks plows straight ahead and a glaring problem is the lack of variation between songs. As I listened to this album I never hated what I was hearing, but I never really loved anything either as all the songs basically had the same straight forward sound, similar tempo, etc. Part of the problem seems to be that DD isn't capable of much range as a singer even if his sound is decent. Basically, Bronx Casket Co. now sounds like the kind of band I wouldn't mind if they were the opener before a band I actually wanted to see.
In the end Antihero is a little Too easily digestible. This kind of feels like radio 'metal' with each song trying too hard to be a single in the most typical sort of way. Antihero could easily be lumped in with a number of modern rock/'metal' bands and be forgotten by the actual metal scene entirely.
Highlights: None
Rating - 2.5/5
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