Marilyn Is Dead

Appearance Disappear

Written by: TL on 11/11/2009 00:50:56

Okay, before I call it a night, I must get this over with. I must admit something. I've made a mistake. That mistake was to sign up for reviewing Marilyn Is Dead, a New Jersey-based electro-core six-piece, and their debut LP "Appearance Disappear". Why? Because this is not a record for me as much as it is a record for the kind of person who can swallow the shit the scene is currently shoveling and still smile - The kind of man who can listen to Attack Attack! and not cringe at the thought of the abomination they are to music. Unfortunately, such a person was not available, so MID will have to make do with me.

It's not that I am completely misaligned with this genre though. In fact, back when Enter Shikari first became all the rage, I was amongst the first scenesters of this fair country who jumped their bandwagon and started vacuuming myspace for similar bands, mostly without success back then. The funny thing is, that nowadays, I could go on the same prowl and still come up empty-handed, because despite an explosion of bands seeking to merge electronic and aggressive music, the number of bands who have managed to do so with anything remotely similar to the class and identity that Enter Shikari did, is still close to zero.

Instead we have band upon band who mindlessly combine breakdowns and screams, with trance melodies, disco beats and auto-tuned wailing, with no mind towards what constitutes a good song, not to mention a memorable impression - And from what I can tell, Marilyn Is Dead is such a band. Granted, they are not as horribly, annoyingly and unsuccessfully cheeky as the crab-core monstrosity whose name I hate to even speak, but they're not far from. Monstrous growls and blasting beats are thrown in between sections of dance-rock with no rhyme or reason beyond adding a touch of trendy br00tality. Both cleans and screams are similar to the hysterics of Drop Dead, Gorgeous, which ever since that band's last album has equaled a label of "annoying to the point it feels like cheese-grating your brain". Especially the constantly strained clean is a down right pain to listen to.

I've tried time and again, to spin "Appearance Disappear", in search of some sign that behind all this, there should be a real band, trying to make things meet up in some sort of artistic vision, but I simply can't find any. It truly just feels like the kind of record you can only enjoy if such concepts as "art", "passion", "purpose", "depth" and "meaning" are things you can leave at the door as you enter a record in search of a shallow melodies and mindless scream sessions. Personally, I don't have that ability. If I want shallow shit, I'll turn on the radio, and if you ask me, this corrupted, simple-minded underbelly of electro-core, is the cancer that's killing music.

3

Download: And By All Who Knew Her
For The Fans Of: 'I See Stars', 'Attack Attack', 'Drop Dead, Gorgeous'
Listen: myspace.com/marilynisdead

Release Date 07.04.2009
**UNSIGNED BAND**

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.