| All In's "Nothing to Lose" is a great album for all of you hardcore fans. But
if you find yourself bored by the over abundance of powerchord verses and chanting
breakdowns, than it's safe to say you probably won't let this album see the light
of day. I personally couldn't help but feel a little bored by All In's latest album,
it was a blend of hardcore that has been matched time and time again and if the CD
was randomly tossed in, I couldn't possibly identify the sound to the band name. This
lack of originality has made this band's debut especially boring for me. I have to be
fair though, for as broad as I am in my metal music, I can say that when listening to
hardcore if there isn't something in the music that sticks out to me as a mark of
originality or a unique attribute that seperates a band from the slew of of other
"straight-forward upbeat and fun" hardcore bands, I probably won't be tuned in for too
long. As much as a live show helps the marketability of a band, I think in some cases
All In compromises musicianship to give listeners a little extra push on the dance floor.
I think if a band can completely blow me away with the stuff that they're playing, it's
just as much of a stage show as if a band was just going all out the whole time. examples
of this are visible in the stage presence I've observed in watching The Red Chord. The
band shows that a live stage performance is important, but it should more times than not,
not compromise musicianship by setting appearance over sound.
With that being said, I will admit that there were a couple of tracks on All In's new
addition to Hand of Hope records that were marked somewhat enjoyable but still quite a
bit sub-par in techniques used. But as long as it sounds good, technicality shouldn't
be the downfall of an album. Tracks such as "The Bunk Price is Right," "The Ol Doo Rag's
A Skipper," "Sarcasm Killed the Rabies" and "It Starts With One Sleeve of Extraordinary
Gentlesauce" are prime examples of this. Each of these tracks has a somewhat simple make
up to it, but the tracks sound unique enough that they serve as a good representatino of
All In to the mosh-free youth. These tracks were really the only tracks on the album I
could actually match just by listening to them, the rest of the tracks seemed to me as
one large blur, making this album a bit boring to me. If I had to choose a standout track
from the album, I think I would have to say "Sarcasm Killed the Rabies" was in my opinion
the best track on the album. It still had the straight-forward hardcore attitude, but it
also intertwined catchy guitar harmonies in with their sound to set this track apart from
the rest of the songs on "Nothing to Lose".
In the end, I think All In's "Nothing to Lose" was singlely focused to please those in the
pit, rather than capture fans from all different aspects of music. Although they can say
that as a band they're musically consistant, I think that might be part of what is holding
this band back. Instead of displaying an album that touches basis on many other influences,
it really just seems like the band has been locked up in a room with a Bane album for a little
too long. With the addition of maybe a couple new influences and a sound geared a little more
towards other aspects of the hardcore scene, All In could possibly be a success in the future.
But for me "Nothing to Lose" really just came up short on sounding out of the ordinary.
~ Drew
October 12 2006 |
