Search - Attack Attack! :: Attack Attack!

Just a Gimmick

Mark Carver | China | 06/29/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Poor conflicted scene kids...I remember when I was in the "scene" at the beginning of the decade and I was always struck by how well the scene kids knew all the radio hits even better than I did, and I wasn't a scene kid making pretensions about not liking that "mainstream garbage." So their hypocrisy was very obvious, but of course they could never openly admit to liking that "mainstream garbage," so what's a scenester to do?



Enter Attack! Attack! Surprisingly well-done tough-guy-yet-sensitive hardcore with melodic choruses, and the occasional booty-shaking club-thumbing anthem. Wait, what? Instead of meshing hardcore with electro/dancebeats, Attack! Attack! segregates the sounds so that you feel like you've got two bands vying for control of the album. There are occasional moments of crossover, but for the most part, you'll be windmill-dancing to titanic breakdowns, then you'll get whiplash as a totally synthesized dance floor ditty straight out of Justin Timberlake's closet gets you shimmying and shaking. The pop-dance songs are identical to what you'll hear on pop radio, but it's from an underground source so it's legit, and somewhat ironic, and that's like, so edgy, you know?



If they spawned a new monster of industrial/electro hardcore, that would have been ultra-sweet, and I think these guys could pull it off. They've got skills, but as it stands, they're a total gimmick and nothing else, something to feed scene kids' guilty pleasures for the sounds of pop radio and sandwiching them in between heavy songs. Check out Attila instead if you want a tongue-in-cheek party hardcore apocalypse."

Pretty awful...

Kit Kitsch | 06/21/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Attack Attack's first album didn't really wow me, nor did I expect it to. Clearly they were trying too hard to do something new and fresh. But they lack serious talent, and that got in their way.



This album is no different. Utter lack of talent. Though it is a new band and they have a different sound, it doesn't really matter because, though they might be able to play instruments and pretend like they're being innovative, the fact is they don't have any musical ability. Their songs are written poorly and they're melding genres incoherently. Who exactly are they appealing to? They go off on their boring, predictable breakdowns only to suddenly switch into a poppy, cringefully bad refrain out of nowhere. The music just doesn't make any sense.



What we have here is what we'd expect out of a couple of high school kids, jamming in their garage, trying to make Lady Gaga sound as hardcore as possible. That's fine, when you're a kid and you're just trying to have fun. But when you make an actual album, one can only assume the artist has a shred of musical talent, but that just isn't found here.



Moreover, they have no depth as musicians. They take the most generic aspects of hip hop, electronica and metal and throw it all together into one big mess. That doesn't work unless you know what you're doing in regards to each genre, and what these guys are doing gives no respect to any of them.



I will say, when I heard that their old vocalist left, I thought they might try and step in the right direction. Frankly, their old vocalist did a number on my ears with his screeching voice. I also heard they were getting rid of that auto-tune crap that's been polluting the music industry. The vocals on this album are substantially better in both the screaming and the clean parts. Part of it has to do with the way it was produced, but these vocals are much more listenable.



That being said, they're still not that great. The screaming is OK. I don't really have a problem with it, though it's not spectacular. But, although the auto-tuning isn't as prevalent, the clean singing is still poppy, cheesy, disney channel-esque nonsense and I guarantee, you've heard it a million times before.



So, with all that being said, is their any redeeming qualities to be found here? Not really. I will admit, there are moments on the album where I didn't hate it, but honestly, as a fan of metal, electronica or whatever it is, look elsewhere because this doesn't do justice to anything and scene groups like this belong in the garbage."

Wow, what happened

Dustin W. Walker | 06/26/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Ok, to start of someday came suddenly, although not the most technical album ever, was a very fun one. Now a couple years later we get an album by a band that really shouldve changed they're name. I was so dissapointed by this release, although much more heavy than the previous one it lacks even more substance (if even possible) than scs. Now on to the the almost complete lack of techno or anything of the sort and the bits of techno seem very forced and and just kinda akward so in short just dont by this cd, its pretty terrible."