- Oct 22, 2006
- 142
- 0
- 16
Insult 2 Injury Self titled
Unsigned Nov 2006
By Dan Fisher
Insult 2 Injury is comprised of four men hailing from a small town east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This area is famous for one of the blackest things known to man. Yeah, thats right, Im talking about coal. Insult are (probably) aiming to be the next big thing to come out of the darkness of the mines and into the light, but are they good enough with this self titled release?
The band claim that they are influenced by Metallica, Dream Theatre, Underoath, Atreyu, Trivium and Killswitch Engage. Whats evident here is that they are not only influenced by them, but try to emulate them and end up with horrible generic mess. There is not a single riff on this album that I thought was interesting or original. The drumming perhaps is the most positive aspect of the album and Frank Denara gets brownie points for some tight double kicking and surprisingly crisp recording. The mixing quality on the rest of the album is pretty awful, with the lead guitar sounding like a wasp taking a wet fart and the rhythm guitar fluctuating between punchy and distant. The clean vocals are clichéd as they strive for whine along anthems in the choruses like Incubus, Atreyu or even, satan help us, Lostprophets. To be fair to the vocalist though, he does do good hard-core type vocals and I would like to see these used exclusively. Structurally, they have begun to create some interesting progressive meanderings but they seem to have no idea about seamlessly segueing each part together. At the moment its very one part finishes. Pause. The next part begins. Another strange decision is the minimalist approach to vocals on most of the tracks. We are left with the nagging feeling that they were tagged on as an afterthought after the instrumentals were worked out which has a negative impact on the songs. Okay, they are still in their teens and so have a lot of potential for growth but Decapitated and Emperor both released albums of brutal genius when they were at that age, proving that it really doesnt matter how old you are.
Insult 2 Injury have been found guilty of sounding like a whole host of other metal-lite bands and must take the punishment of wallowing in mediocrity (and obscurity) until they choose to pick up their game and write a decent album.
4/10.
UMs Review Rating Scale
Official Insult 2 Injury Website
Unsigned Nov 2006
By Dan Fisher
Insult 2 Injury is comprised of four men hailing from a small town east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This area is famous for one of the blackest things known to man. Yeah, thats right, Im talking about coal. Insult are (probably) aiming to be the next big thing to come out of the darkness of the mines and into the light, but are they good enough with this self titled release?
The band claim that they are influenced by Metallica, Dream Theatre, Underoath, Atreyu, Trivium and Killswitch Engage. Whats evident here is that they are not only influenced by them, but try to emulate them and end up with horrible generic mess. There is not a single riff on this album that I thought was interesting or original. The drumming perhaps is the most positive aspect of the album and Frank Denara gets brownie points for some tight double kicking and surprisingly crisp recording. The mixing quality on the rest of the album is pretty awful, with the lead guitar sounding like a wasp taking a wet fart and the rhythm guitar fluctuating between punchy and distant. The clean vocals are clichéd as they strive for whine along anthems in the choruses like Incubus, Atreyu or even, satan help us, Lostprophets. To be fair to the vocalist though, he does do good hard-core type vocals and I would like to see these used exclusively. Structurally, they have begun to create some interesting progressive meanderings but they seem to have no idea about seamlessly segueing each part together. At the moment its very one part finishes. Pause. The next part begins. Another strange decision is the minimalist approach to vocals on most of the tracks. We are left with the nagging feeling that they were tagged on as an afterthought after the instrumentals were worked out which has a negative impact on the songs. Okay, they are still in their teens and so have a lot of potential for growth but Decapitated and Emperor both released albums of brutal genius when they were at that age, proving that it really doesnt matter how old you are.
Insult 2 Injury have been found guilty of sounding like a whole host of other metal-lite bands and must take the punishment of wallowing in mediocrity (and obscurity) until they choose to pick up their game and write a decent album.
4/10.
UMs Review Rating Scale
Official Insult 2 Injury Website
Pittsburgh isn't a good area for metal though. If you heard the majority of what they've got going on around here, you'd probably be surprised that Insult 2 Injury exists at all! Indeed, it is lame. 
