Sunday, August 12, 2012

Review: September's The Beginning of the End...

Coming from a guy who wants nothing to do with anything Slipknot influenced, September’s debut self-titled release really took me by surprise. I do the best I can to be an unbiased Des Moines scene supporter and after hearing this album, I’m ready to check out a live show. This album went way above my expectations with the song orchestrations and overall production. I drove to Omaha, on the way to recording my own album, listening to September’s album The Beginning of the End of All Things Beautiful and was really blown away with how good this album is.

The Beginning Of The End Of All Things Beautiful
(Cover art done by Jason Handy)
My expectations at first were that I was going to hear something outdated, as in angry metal from the mid 1990s to mid 2000s. September is a group that I can tell is influenced by today’s radio commercial metal. I expected mediocre mixing and mastering on the album as well because not all bands out there are well versed in home recording, and they sometimes pay other recording engineers for a subpar mixing and mastering job. Clearly this wasn’t the case.

At first when hitting play, it sounds like trance music and then the music gets heavier and heavier. When the vocals come in, it sounds like music that is ready to be heard on the radio. I can’t exactly figure out what mainstream band September sounds like (maybe Drowning Pool or Coal Chamber), but I will say whatever that band is—add influence from Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, and Depeche Mode. These aforementioned influences make September stand out more. I listen to a lot of progressive and symphonic metal and September’s synth orchestration makes their music more attractive, especially since I’m not into “nu-metal” at all.

The songs “Please”, “Scars”, “Trigger Shy”, and “Evol” were what I consider the hot spots on this album. September covered the Nine Inch Nails song “Head Like A Hole” and nailed it dead on. If there are any local listeners who are into Nine Inch Nails, check out this cover—you will not be disappointed. There was only one song that I didn’t care for too much and it is the song “Lashing Out”. This song utilizes auto-tune vocals and I don’t feel this band needs auto-tune to begin with. I listen to bands like Cynic and Scar Symmetry who do use auto-tune for backup vocals (like in a vocal harmony), but not in the fashion that most hip hop stars use it. Don’t let this one song ruin the album for you though. It’s a very solid album worth looking into if are local in Des Moines or are into industrial metal.

-Reviewed and written by Mr. Clean.

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Pertinent links:

September on ReverbNation

September on Facebook


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