Member:
avestin
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by avestin)
Date:
7/16/2009
Format:
CD (Album)
Crude and dirty, slimy and raw.
Sounds like appealing music to you?
Well, USSSY's music is like that and then it begs the question, do you like your music to sound as if it needs a mouth wash or a laundry to clean it up to make it shiny and bright sounding, or you dislike this type?
Do you like a punk-ish attitude, crude, aggressive and abrasive sound and style with buried-in-the-mix screams? Do you like noise-rock?
This is all abundant in this album made by the trio of Artem Galkin (guitar and vocals), Pavel Eremeev (bass, vocals) and Sergei Ledovski (drums) which were all in the avant-garde rock/metal/hardcore band I Am Above On The Left.
The song structures may sound mostly simplistic in-your-face brutal, noisy and harsh but there is some more to it hidden that needs to be uncovered by listening.
The production is basic sounding and fits the spirit very much. While there are some neat tracks here and some interesting and grabbing riffs and themes, they can, for me, be to hindered by the production values (which you would say are inherent for this type of music, but I believe this particular album can sound cleaner, better and friendlier in a way that will serve the music).
There are good moments such in “Wild Animals”, in which a heavy bass sound repeats a riff in the opening, having an effective hook and grab. However, it ends quite soon (2 minutes roughly) and this could have served as a basis for a more developed or more fulfilled potential. “Wild Moustaches” is another good example of a good idea that ends way too soon (1:37 minutes).
These tracks represent the more interesting side of this project.
The brutality is fine and the crudeness I can live without. But the use of effective riffs in a more appealing sounding atmosphere could do wonders to the band's music. And then working on adding interesting twists to the songs. Introducing changes to add to the already existing good ideas and performing them in a lesser crude way, in a more precise way. But that amounts to personal preference. Some might want it dirty sounding, and some won't. A song like “Sullen Rebirth” for instance has neat ideas and an interesting guiding theme. Had it sounded better, it would only benefit from it. But this song represents the band's ability shown in the shorter tracks, and how they develop those ideas into a longer and progressed fashion. Wire is another such example. But again, I'd love to hear it sounding clearer (but again, perhaps this form is better suited for this music). However, their brutality and hyperactive levels are quite remarkable and are great if you're in the mood for this. But Wire becomes to repetitive for me after a while and a more adventurous approach would have added much to this song. There is the break after 6:45 minutes in, but more than a continuation of what was before, it's a sort of recess from the music, and the theme that preceded it, although not a bad one. It builds up nicely from there and goes on to regain the dynamic it abandoned, but eventually it's just an acceleration of the same theme until the end.
Overall, their music will appeal to noise-rock/metal, given that they like this sort of production level. For pure unadulterated aggressive rock/metal fun, this is a decent choice amidst the wealth of bands of this style.
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