| News | | Guitar World Column | | Interviews | | Pictures | | Album Reviews | | Gig Reviews | | Release Dates | | History | | Articles | | Setlists | | Upcoming | | Contact |
My rating points:
|
|
Los Angeles rock band The Binges recently came out with their self-titled debut album. For those who aren't familiar with them, The Binges are made up of sisters Tsuzumi and Mayuko Okai on bass and guitar respectively, along with Dylan Squatcho on vocals and Travis Smith on drums. The sisters are from Japan but have every right to call Los Angeles their own backyard. Their live show is not merely a show, it's an experience. And if that's anything to go by, this debut album promises to be quite a treat for the listener.
The album starts off with "Hear Me Out", a highly energetic and enjoyable hard rock tune. The main guitar riff combines excellently with the chorus line and overall, everything sounds very cohesive. Having said that, the guitar solo and the following interlude is the highlight of the song. Having succeeded in getting off to a truly rocking start, the album takes it up a notch further with the "Motorcycle Song". The guitar sound is killer to start with, and is enhanced greatly by the use of the effects pedal. Even though the song is less than three minutes in duration, it packs some serious punch. Not only is this a great motorcycle song as the title suggests, it's one for the headbangers and expect to see a lot of that whenever this song is played live.
"Upside Down" is the third track. This one has a little more to it than the first two which are purely straight-up rock tunes. It has some excellent tempo changes, going from the slow heavy parts to those with fast shredding. Dylan has done a brilliant job on the vocals to handle the tempo changes. Tsuzumi's bass is really prominent in the slower parts. All in all, an outstanding tune. Following this is " Not My Idea Of A Good Time", another tune with lots of attitude and exuberance, and a rather enjoyable bass sound. And at 2 minutes and 40 seconds, I think it's been cut to the perfect duration, and has its maximum impact as a result of it. "Baby Get's Her Done" comes next. This is one of the tracks I enjoy most on the entire album, and it's easy going tempo is what I love most about it. The lyrics are really easy to sing along with, while the guitar solo is probably the most delightful solo on the whole album. This is definitely one track I always hit the "repeat" button for.
The slow, heavy, down-tuned guitar riff perfectly represents the tone of the song "Wake Up The Devil", although it does pick up pace towards it's latter half and reaches a crescendo. "I Got A Problem" picks up the tempo even further and brings back the energetic hard rock feel the first half of the album possesses in plenty. It builds up beautifully and every aspect of this song is just excellent. After those terrific 4 minutes, "Hooray Parade" carries the album forward, continuing from where the previous song left off. The vocals here are great, and the music does it's bit in matching up with it perfectly. I used the word cohesive before, and I'd be doing this particular song a disservice if I didn't use the same word to describe it. It's the longest song on the album, but certainly doesn't feel so. The album ends in a similar manner in which it started, with two flat-out rocking tunes "Bad Enough" and "Rock Show", leaving the listeners gasping for more, as they hit "play" on track 1 all over again.
A lot of great metal music has been coming out in recent times, and the heavy metal torch continues to be lit. But when it comes to the old school hard rock sound, I really haven't come across many good albums at all (and I do listen to literally everything that's released). Well, The Binges are here to change that, and this is a fantastic album from start to finish. It's so awesome that I'm finding it really hard trying to come up with my favorites, or songs that I usually recommend the readers of the review to check out first before the rest of the album. But if I really have to, I'd suggest "Hear Me Out", "Upside Down", "Baby Get's Her Done" and "Hooray Parade".
The band's name is an absolutely perfect fit for their attitude and music. An honest, exuberant and delightful effort that is sure to go down as one of the most top-notch hard rock albums to have come out in recent years. Get this album and get your binge on!! \m/
TweetLooking for the best cable deals? Check out Cox Phoenix!