I’ll begin this review not with an intro about the band, but by pointing out that Nine Inch Nails were one of the first bands I really got into by myself. I haven’t really kept up with their more recent stuff, but the first three albums are some of my most over-played albums that I own, with The Downward Spiral possibly my #1 favourite album of all time. This makes it very easy for me to say that I liked this album. To put it simply, if you hate NIN, then you might as well save yourself some money and buy a cheaper coaster instead.
Opening track, ‘Change’, breaks through with some heavy fuzz-coated synths and a crisp industrial stomp. This one straddles between a verse which is highly reminiscent of Fragile opener ‘Somewhat Damaged’, and literally has me straining to hold back from shouting out “too fucked up to care anymore…” – and the mellow breakdowns of ‘The Perfect Drug’ on the chorus, where things at least manage not to fall apart. Yes, there are certainly things to like here on a musical level, but originality is not one of them and it’s a wonder they can get away with such blatant rip-offs! This doesn’t end on following track ‘The End’, which straight away brings to mind ‘Head Like A Hole’. No bad thing, but a little more originality could go a long way. I like to think that with a bit of work Resando could develop into a decent band in their own right, but the problem I can see here is that the parts that don’t directly rip off Reznor et. al. are just not very good at all and the chorus here is really quite bland and uninspiring. The vocals of Filippo de Asmundis have that charming aura of deep self-pity delivered with a sharp acerbic edge, however in places they do veer too far into whiny emo territory, such as on ‘Still Alive’, which is definitely one of the more forgettable tracks on the album.
‘Snake’ slows the pace considerably and I have to say it’s one of my favourites here. There’s a thick atmosphere underlying the track and the lyrics are sung with the right amount of passion, especially as we get to the chorus. I genuinely like the melody here too. ‘Secret’ slithers back to a more lively danceable pace (think ‘No You Don’t’…sorry, it really is quite heavy on the plagiarism) and there are some nice dirty sounding synths that bring ‘Evil’ to the fore. Yes, I could liken this to a song too but it’s getting rather tiresome by now.
As far as Copro stuff goes, this is above average. They do have quite a strong sound, but it is just so unoriginal. It occasionally veers into a kind of bland rock territory and the vocals are quite irritating in places. Resando do show a bit of promise, but they really need to work on finding their own sound and unfortunately I have the feeling that when they do, I am not going to like it. Sorry boys, why listen to a third rate NIN when I can go and listen to The Fragile? Speaking of which….
http://www.myspace.com/resando
Luci Herbert
MTUK HOME
