Shoot the Messenger

Please...Just do it. So, today I thought I would review a cd I bought last night. As I stated in my last post, I bought the Shoot the Messenger Ep, Come Revolution. The band contains Steve Biss(Vocals), Chris Ebel(Guitars), Tyson O'Dell(Guitars), Victor Roman(Bass) and, Michael Van Betuw(Drums). Seeing as I know these guys I figured I'd review it. Now, I'd like to start off by saying that anything said in this review is to be taken as constructive criticism. So they shouldn't take it too personally.

I'll start off by saying that Adam Coderre did a great job mixing the cd. Although it's not professional quality he did a wonderful job with what he had and it turned out great. The music itself is Heavy Metal, plain and simple. There is nothing special about it. It's all been done before. Although this makes for a great live act, every city has a band that plays it so it's very difficult to make it anywhere with it. I could list off a host of bands that they sound like. The music is tight though and I must say they have improved skill-wise from the days of Sisivalant. But no suprises there. We all have. A few spots I think they should have changed things. For example. In one spot Mike counts in by banging his sticks together but it isn't properly mic'd and sounds terrible. He should of hit a drum or something instead. Although this sounds good live and can be done on a cd, it was not done properly here. Another point is that during most of the guitar solos Steve was still singing and you can barely hear the solos. Maybe this is what the guys want but I thought what I could hear of the solos was great and they should either have been turned up or Steve should have backed off for a minute. The solos aren't long so he wouldn't of had to sit back for long.

My main problem is hard for me to say but I think I owe it to him. My main problem with the cd is Steve's vocals. I am going to say this using his own arguement. You see, Steve and I would discuss vocal work and on subjects of Lamb of God he would say how he disliked Ashes of the Wake compared to thier older stuff because on Ashes of the Wake, Randy Blythe, the vocalist, didn't explore his range of screams and growls very well. Now, I have heard Steve growl and scream. He has a wide range of growls and screams and can mix it up, but throughout the entire cd you hear him screaming one word, taking a breath, then screaming one word, then taking a breath and so on and so forth and during the entire time he screams and the exact same pitch and in the exact same way. I know Steve can do better than that and has a wider range of vocals. Plus I know he can hold a note longer...I have heard him do it in Sisvalant and on the Oligodendroglia cd's. Probably bad comparisons but I think he could properly use them in Shoot the Messenger. I must say though, during his screams there were times in which it sounded like his voice would give out and I thought that sounded really good....Added more emotion and brutality to it. I also enjoyed the lyrics. I was wondering what he could do after Sisivalant and he proved himself as a competent lyric writer. Which after reading much of his writings over the years I was not suprised with the quality of them.

I would like to remind them that this is meant as constructive criticism and even if they don't head it I will buy the next cd(if there is one) and I will definetly go to thier live shows. They are a great live act..the music they play translates amazingly when played live. It is with this in mind that I give this cd and EP rating of 6 out of 10. I think that they have great potential and with hard work and practice this band could really start to show up on the map..that said, most of them are in school right now and plus they are in Saskatchewan and the music industry is kinda pathetic here.