Those of you into underground rock are probably aware of the band Therapy?, a band that have not had much success but has had some airtime in music channels and the like. The band has a hard rock sound with some metal melodies or even some pop melodies thrown in. They delve in metal-type distortion riffs similar to the nu-metal fashion AKA heavy rhythm power chords. But what Therapy? also do is have an edgy punk element to the music. Some of the music is quite fast and edgy and comparable to punk bands or even grunge bands. No matter what the band do, they stick to a melodic sound that is easy to listen to but also strikes a chord.
Andy Cairns is possibly the man behind it all, as the band's guitarist and vocalist, Andy keeps the band going. His voice can be quite raspy at times, it can be like he's almost shouting, he also snarls and whispers some of his vocals, and he has a powerful and loud voice. His guitar work isn't technical at all, in fact it doesn't go out of power chords a lot but he does a pretty good job none the less. As most of his parts are insanely catchy and feature some sort of melody. The guitar also just makes the music flow; after all, he does sing and play at the same time, something I've been having trouble doing for years.
Michael does his bass lines fine, since there is only a guitarist, bassist and drummer in the band, he basically helps the music from sounding very lame and small. The guitars sound very trebly so the bass helps the music from sounding shoddily done. Fyfe is a great drummer and knows his place, he knows that the drums are mainly to keep beat but he's also heard of a fill. My only complaint is that the snare sounds extremely small and is more of a click than a rich snare sound, none the less it isn't something that would bring my rating down. I just feel that the album would be a bit more listenable with a good snare sound.
The first track that caught my attention was the angst-ridden grunge fest Screamager. An extremely simple song mainly driven by Andy's vocals, the power chords in the song are fast and edgy, possibly the track that will make or break if you'll like this or not. The lyrics are pretty cliche but they are still pretty good compared to a lot of bands today. "With a face like this I won't break any hearts and thinking like that I won't make any friends", squawk Cairns as he breaks into the nearly anthemic chorus.
Die Laughing infects your brain with this irresistible pop melody, the verses are simply beautiful. Halfway through the song, the direction is changed for a while containing a lot of grunge elements. Nowhere is a brilliant pop rock song, in the same vein as maybe Jimmy Eat World. It's quite a positive song and is a great listen to me. I recommend this to fans of rock that isn't afraid of simplicity and such, so reader, I leave this message to you all...
