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Primal Rock Rebellion

Awoken Broken

Written by: PP on 11/09/2012 02:48:08

Spinefarm Records are notorious for releasing almost exclusively quality records that each have that extra something that makes them stand out in comparison to their peers, but this is one release which I just can't get behind. It's possible that the label bosses were blinded by the prospect of combining Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith with the now-defunct, but then-incredibly hyped technical metal band SikTh vocalist Mikee Good together for a supergroup type of project and though it would be awesome without vetting the project any further than that.

But whatever the back story, one thing's for sure: "Awoken Broken" is an awful record. Not awful in terms of technical skill considering the people involved, but awful in terms of the resulting sound that comes from combining two musicians together from vastly different backgrounds. In retrospect, it should've been relatively easy to predict that "Awoken Broken" would sound like some weird, fucked up amalgamation of classic heavy metal and modern metal, but that it sometimes spills over into koRn style nu-metal and other inexplicably bad decisions is simply unacceptable. And that's not all. The record sways like a pendulum between the two styles, somethings going all-out in nu-metallish vibes such as on the album opener, and elsewhere pertaining to pure heavy metal of the most generic kind. In other words, we're dealing with an incredibly unfocused an incoherent record that is at a complete loss of an identity.

Now, that wouldn't be so bad if the songs were at least individually good, but aside from one, maybe two exceptions, "Awoken Broken" is a boring record. And sometimes, unfortunately, it's a terrible record. Some of those nu-metal style scream/shout/growl grunts are ridiculously bad, and on the other end of the spectrum, the heavy metal wails are only passable in quality. Musicianship is all over the place and never seems to follow a red thread of any sorts, resulting in songs that drag on and on despite only being around 3 minutes of length. That's never a good sign. And when there are instances where the two genres at play are combined in the worst imaginable way possible, there isn't much more left to be said about this record. Not all supergroups on paper work well in practice, and this is one dire example of that.

Download: No Friendly Neighbour, No Place Like Home
For the fans of: Blaze Bayley meets koRn
Listen: YouTube

Release date 17.04.2012
Spinefarm Records