Sonic Syndicate
We Rule the Night


1.0
awful

Review

by Observer EMERITUS
August 21st, 2010 | 171 replies


Release Date: 2010 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Sonic Syndicate release one of the worst and most frustrating releases of 2010

Jesus Christ. You hear this music, and immediately you cringe and grate your teeth. You really just can’t help it: the sound all but overwhelms you. Your first melo-death binge instantly comes to mind, having perhaps started at a time in the late Noughties when melodic death metal’s peak had long since come and gone. It seemed to you that only a few of the soon-to-be big leaguers like Be’lakor or Intestine Baalism were the only ones delivering the goods now, delivering the legit shit. Oh yes, you remember. Perhaps it was only recently.

On more than one occasion you would come across popular bands of Swedish or Finnish descent, turned saturated and empty of any use of subtly whatsoever, or of anything that made Carcass fun or Gothenburg the place to be, the place to make some real happening melodic death metal back in the day. Former shadows of themselves were all these bands when you came across them in your search, now turned a watered-down alternative metal or melodic metalcore sound, now turned into a like-player akin to the hauntingly terrible origin of the very recalling of your melo-memory: Sonic Syndicate.

That bad, eh? Yeah, Sonic Syndicate have been on a constant descent into melo-hell since their 2007 In Flames and Avenged Sevenfold sickly lovechild, Only Inhuman. Something about the way Roland Johansson raped M. Shadows’ vocals put things into a suspicious context to begin with. But further throw in some cheese-ball keyboard effects and an abundance of God-awful screams coming from the worst of the worst in the business, Richard Sjunnesson, and you had the audio manifestation of what all of us are currently praying In Flames will never sink to. To call them horrible is an understatement: Sonic Syndicate are the bottom of the barrel when melodic death metal is concerned.

And now they bring to us their fourth release, We Rule The Night, the worst the band have ever done in their sad, sorry mess of a career. Uh oh. To prevent you from listening to this, I will tell you that Sjunnesson’s putrid chainsaw-into-your-eardrum of a scream is still here, still so hauntingly prevalent, that any of the band’s blatant hooks and fits of catchiness are drowned out completely in its wake. With a nauseating lack of subtly does a song like “Break of Day” present itself to you near the album’s end. The song repeats the whole of the band’s last two albums in just its two-minute, thirty seconds running time - this verse-chorus, keyboard-howl filth that has yet to change, despite the inclusion of a new lead singer for the band in 2009, Nathan J. Biggs.

You’d expect Sonic Syndicate to sound reasonably fresh with a new lead singer on We Rule The Night, at least as far as the vocals are concerned, but no. Give a listen to the album’s first three tracks, and you will probably have a very hard time separating ex-singer Johansson from this guy. His addition to the band’s songwriting is also sadly minimal, and despite Sonic Syndicate stating that they were having “creative differences” with Johansson, the majority of We Rule The Night plays out like just another Sonic Syndicate album - without something like “Denied” to tempt you into returning for a brief, guilty listen.

That is, at least, with the exception of We Rule The Night’s laughable pseudo-dance ball, ”Turn It Up”, and the two ballads, “My Own Life” and “Miles Apart”. In the past, Sonic Syndicate were able to get melodramatic and touching on a song like 2007’s “Enclave” without sinking further down into the ground with the rest of the album’s material. Here, however, this is not the case. “My Own Life” takes the redemptive 3 Door Down thing and botches it up with a set of clichéd, lazy lyrics: “Fate is kicking down my door / But I don’t live there anymore,” and “Miles Apart” turns the poorly expressed sentiments of Nickelback on an unfortunate other: “Even if we’re a million miles apart / We’re still joined right at the heart.” Good Lord, guys.

You might rightly call We Rule The Night one of the worst albums of 2010, but it is also one of the most frustrating. Sonic Syndicate parade around as if they own the world, as if they own the night, as evidenced in interviews and especially in their showy and arrogant music videos. It’s somewhat fulfilling and justified, then, that their albums are truly trash and that many of us don’t fall for their blatant shit. However, for the rest it is a tragedy that this band go on and continue to dilute minds with their filth, continue to dilute the subgenre of melodic death metal to an even lower level. Don’t buy into it. Throw this shit in the garbage where it belongs.



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user ratings (274)
1.5
very poor


Comments:Add a Comment 
klap
Emeritus
August 21st 2010


12410 Comments


zing!

Terrifyer
August 21st 2010


3403 Comments


intro is so good have a pos

Observer
Emeritus
August 21st 2010


9453 Comments


cheers, terrifyer


stream is on myspace


pizzamachine
August 21st 2010


27668 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Must have been fun to review this crap.

Crysis
Emeritus
August 21st 2010


17640 Comments


Figured that this would have sucked

Phrike
August 21st 2010


1691 Comments


gonna rate it 1 not even gonna listen

XulOnerom
August 21st 2010


1818 Comments


It breaks my heart to read "Carcass" on a review of a stupid metalcore album

But good review, I shall pos for great justice

greg84
Emeritus
August 21st 2010


7654 Comments


Great negative review, man. Pos'd.

Digging: Chat Pile - Cool World

Nomos
August 21st 2010


1737 Comments


Hilarious, perfect review.

Observer
Emeritus
August 21st 2010


9453 Comments


Thanks for the comments guys.

their last album was basically only human without much of a standout, but this is beyond terrible. New singer does nothing for them at all to help

zaruyache
August 22nd 2010


27750 Comments


You didn't mention their hot bass player so there's a neg




Just kidding. Pos'd.

DaveyBoy
Emeritus
August 22nd 2010


22503 Comments


Is this the band with the female guitarist/bassist who occasionally sings? If so, does she on this album?

Observer
Emeritus
August 22nd 2010


9453 Comments


Yeah, she's the bassist. She doesn't sing on this though, but if you would like to hear her try Eden Fire, davey. Overall it's a better, more interesting album too.

CutMan
August 22nd 2010


1926 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

Listening. This doesn't sound like a one so far. A one sounds over-dramatic- *hits "Turn it Up"* .............. Okay, it's not GOOD.



I'm just not sure it deserves a 1.

DaveyBoy
Emeritus
August 22nd 2010


22503 Comments


I heard one song of theirs which was reallllllly poppy & she was singing on it. I didn't mind it, but then when I looked the band up, it said she hardly sang again.

XulOnerom
August 22nd 2010


1818 Comments


A lot of bands use the old technique of having a hot female among their ranks to bring attention to their otherwise unremarkable songs and albums.

Yes, Bleeding Through and The Agonist, I'm looking at you

JayVex
August 22nd 2010


389 Comments


Haha I wonder how many of the "awful" voters have actually listened to the album ;)

Scoot
August 22nd 2010


22699 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

I've heard Revolution, Baby. That was enough.

Digging: Cosmic Putrefaction - Emerald Fires Atop The Farewell Mountains

Locrian
August 22nd 2010


1003 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0 | Sound Off

This band was decent back in the day but I can't stand them anymore. Also:



Something about the way Roland Johansson raped M. Shadows’ vocals put things into a suspicious context to begin with.




Wait, so it was possible to make Shadows' vocals even more annoying? That's just... I can't even...

CutMan
August 22nd 2010


1926 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

Hearing one song is never "enough". That's just childish.



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