posted 12/08/2005 (Thu) @ 06:51 pm
>>> Music Reviews
Scary Kids Scaring Kids - The City Sleeps in Flames (2005)
Just another brick in the wall
- The City Sleeps in Flames
- The Only Medicine
- The World As We Know It
- What’s Said Is Done
- Just A Taste
- My Darkest Hour
- Drowning You in Fear
- The Bright Side of Suffering
- Empty Glasses
- Faith in the Knife
- A Breath of Sunshine
Quite like many prospective fans of this disc, you may become angry to know that the title of this review was in no way meant to suggest that Scary Kids Scaring Kids sound anything at all like Pink Floyd. It’s kind of like how they sound nothing like their namesake, Cap’n Jazz.
Let’s just rename the whole affair Crying Because I’m Dying or Flaming Melodrama and get on with this.
“The Only Medicine” and “Faith in the Knife” stand out as the best two cuts from this album. Between point A and point B, you’re probably going to get a lot of reading done.
The Scary Kids are simply too predictable. The guitar tone sounds like trash-flavored trash, supporting a vocalist that sounds like he pricked himself on a dirty needle while dumpster diving, which is exacerbated by some truly terrible, tuneless call-and-response segments.
There’s also a very prominent keyboard on “My Darkest Hour.” Think Europe’s “Final Countdown.” (In other words, put a bullet in my head.)
For me, the silver lining to any album like this is how many “Huh?” moments the band can manage. You know the kind. Points during a listen-through that break you out of your routine to go “Huh? Whoa, that’s cool.” With a troupe like the Scary Kids, all those moments are going to be borne out of harmonized guitar solos.
The many guitars here intertwine very rarely, but when they do, as on the second cut, the results are head-turning. “The Only Medicine” features a serpentine bridge solo that makes good use of the band’s instruments and influences (Gothenburg metal, Iron Maiden).
In the end, though, Scary Kids Scaring Kids are made out of the same stuff as every other brick in their wall. If you’ve already run head first into said wall, you’ll probably consider this graffiti, but cranial injuries do impair judgment.
Tags: emo, hardcore, metalcore, punk, screamo
