Review Summary: Nu-Metal. Simple as that.
First off, let's get things straight. Nu-Metal is probably the most hated (besides pop and country) music genre there is. Personally, I love Nu-Metal and almost every band in the genre. Anyways, here we have the band Shuvel. A not really known Nu-Metal band. They performed at Ozzfest 2000 and the rest is history. Set It off is their debut album and honestly, there is a lot of potential presented here.
The album opens up with "Set It Off" the album title track. This is the only single on the album and honestly probably the most boring track on the album. The song is about the Columbine massacre and youth violence. Sure the message is good but it's just not a very good song. The impressive thing about this song is the chemistry between the two singers. They tend to switch off at the perfect times throughout the song, hell even the whole album. The guitar work here is decent. It's mainly full of harmonics and very high-pitched distortions.
The drum work is absolutely phenomenal. It's too bad that the drums are probably the least produced thing on the album. They are very tinny and can sometimes can give you a headache. Anyways, to the next track "Jump In." Starts off with a pretty good guitar line and then it kicks in. The verses are pretty annoying because the guitar sounds terrible in the back-round. The chorus is pretty great though. One of the singers can scream very well while the other one just sounds like he belongs in the Beastie Boys. There's a mini guitar solo? I honestly don't know what to call it. It's really just the same note repeated with a pitch shifter.
The next song "Hitlist" is basically the same as the first songs. Same format as the others. Chorus. Verse. Chorus. Verse. Bridge. Breakdown. Chorus. The only difference in this song is that the bass is actually audible the first couple seconds of the song. The bass work isn't anything special at all. Seems like a studio bassist to me rather than an official member. The song after "Hitlist" is "Inside Out." Once again same format and everything. Except the guitar sounds way better than in the other songs. More produced and not as much annoying harmonics or dumb pitch shifters. The drums also don't sound as tinny. Which is a great thing but too bad the drummer doesn't do anything on this song.
Now onto my favorite song on the album "Those Who Stand In Line." The song is so fast paced and the most well produced song on the album. It is great and the rapping is probably the best on the album. Everyone in the band is really just doing their own thing and it actually works very well in this song. The guitar solo is still kind of annoying but it's not too bad. Now let's not even bother with the next 6 tracks because they are just so boring and are just fillers for the album. It seems they ran out of ideas so they just started recycling the first songs they recorded.
The next good song on the album is "Past-Tense." The heaviest song on the album. It really just makes you want to mosh and the guitar is deeply tuned on this song. The rapping is exceptional on this song as well. Onto the last song "Ballfat." (Yeah I don't know either.) It takes about a minute and a half to kick in but when it does it's great. The best guitar work on the album and the most screaming. Too bad the song only lasts about 3 minutes and the rest is just silence and then some beat towards the end of the 9 minute "song."
The only people that should listen to this album really are "Tru" Nu-Metal fans. There are also a lot of "Snot" influences on this album instrument wise. It's only about 3 bucks for this album so if you want go right ahead and give it a listen.
Pros:
Great rapping
Drum work is very good
Those Who Stand In Line
Screaming is decent
Cons:
Same song formula
No actual singing
Guitar is annoying at times
Drums are under produced
Same vocal effects on every song
Only Nu-Metal fans will enjoy
