TARLD ‘Gone For A While’ Album Review by VINCENT DAEMON
THE AMSTERDAM RED LIGHT DISTRICT (AKA: TARLD)
GONE FOR A WHILE
LABEL: Red Light Records
Release Date: November 26th, 2014
THE AMSTERDAM RED LIGHT DISTRICT is: Vocals: Elio Guitar/Back Vocals: Maxxx Bass (Guitar): Greg Drums: Chan
This is the debut album by “modern punkmetal” band THE AMSTERDAM RED LIGHT DISTRICT, from Lyon, France. That alone made me curious. Modern day punkmetal from France? Sure, why not.
An interestingly bland listen this is indeed, falling into some odd category that definitely is a punk-metal hybrid, but with a definitively biased leaning toward the modern end of the spectrum mentioned in the PR.
What exactly do I mean? It’s hard to pin down, exactly, but it may perhaps be the all too present “emo/screamo” element (hence the ‘MODERN’ I suppose). There is nothing that makes this stick out from the dregs of any number of other similar-type sounding acts — there’s a certain off-putting-ish CKY and CHEVELLE element to all of it. This is entirely radio friendly, repetitive, commercial crap.
It’s manufactured rage and scientifically-proven-to-grab catch/hook riffs, songs quite possibly generated by some computer, with an charismaless, emotionless, auto-tuned scream-singer who’s deepest adversity in life has obviously been which Keds to buy.
I dunno, maybe it’s just me being a dinosaur, a throwback, if you will. This is certainly not what I was expecting, even given the nu-metal looking skater-guy caught in in mid-jump, over a distant and blurry airplane, that is their imaginationless cover. *What, did this guy just buy a fukkin’ Toyota airplane with his advance for this turd? Maybe this is a generational thing — I don’t connect with one aspect of this over-produced rehash music for automatons. It’s dreadfully boring in it’s best moments.
When I saw “punkmetal” I automatically thought I’d be getting some kind of cross-over, some kind thrash, a Venom clone or something. But no, what this really is is merely yet another stultifyingly bland “metalcore” act. *Good Luck with that, Guys.
However, guitarist/vocalist Maxxx (yes, with 3 xxx’s — I’m guessing straight-edge, yawn) is apparently very happy with their sophomor(ic) effort, stating: “We are really proud to present that brand new song called ‘Time Flies,’ opening track of the upcoming album “Gone For A While” to be released on November 26th. With a rock n’ roll touch and catchy riffs, this song is pretty representative of our new album. Enjoy and share!” Yes, listen to this song, you won’t need to hear the rest of the album.
A “rock and roll touch” is what they try for, at oddly placed times, and seriously fail to achieve. And every track . . . sounds exactly the same! The album kept playing as I sitened, wondering when, and if, it was going to stop, Hoping that it would stop, before I realized that this was the fifth time it was repeating itself. That was about the level of catch involved.
Recommended for that weird kid who just stopped liking Justin Bieber and wants to ease into a radio-friendly, insipidly wannabe rough-n-tumble “punk-metal” band. Seems they play a lot of festivals, though, including: Groezrock (BE), Resurrection Fest (Spain), Mair 1 Open Air Festival, Tells Bells Festival (Germany), Sylak Open Air Festival (France).
Apparently they’ve opened for SLAYER in Europe. I’ve been to SLAYER shows and have friends that are die-hard fans — I do not see that going over well at all.
For more information on TARLD, please visit:
Vincent Daemon, writer and rabblerouser, can be followed on FB @https://www.facebook.com/vincent.daemon.1 , and join his blog The Writings Of A Depraved Mind @http://vincentdaemon.blogspot.com/?zx=e40931ba40511a11
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