| There's a saying that goes, "If You Build It, They Will Come." Well apparently this progressive
metal band from Canada heeded that philosophy and soon after pulling together five increasing
strange individuals, they created the band What's He Building In There? Apparently "they" have come
and "they" are intrigued as to what is being built. Well I'll let you in on a little secret, they are
finished with a self-titled album and I wanted to know if they did indeed built it, would people
amass on their record in the store like starving mice to a hunk of cheese.
These guys are weird and when I say weird, I mean Aquabats on Qualudes who wear costumes of sesame
street characters and aliens weird. This type of nutty personality does translate well into their
chaotic metal. You don't simply get straight forward metal however, as you are bombarded with
multiple musical personalities such as a rumbling chug machine and a finicky wild guitars playing
to Bert McCracken-like singing, which I'm sure is personified from each of the insane band members.
This album isn't bad per say, it is more like an extended stay at a mental asylum that has inmates
screaming at you for your "fresh meat." It almost has too many sides for us to get comfortable with
anyone portion. One moment we could be getting some nu-metal sounds and the next we will be pummeled
with raspy shout/growls and tangled power chords, only to get hit with soft singing and melodic
guitars (About the only really positive thing on the record). The addition of keyboards and effects
adds synergy to several songs but it is a little too late by the end of the record.
You do get about an hours worth of tunes from 10 songs which is a nice touch, but too much of this
record is confused (or just crazy) about the direction it wishes to go. I felt like a sailor on a
boat in a hurricane trying to hold on to the mast in this sea of differential. Don't get me wrong,
some of the aspects of this self titled album are enjoyable (periods of melodic guitars, effects,
singing), but the rest is just too jumbled for the standard metal listener to get interested in.
~ Pernell
February 26 2008 |