As it turns out, LiveEvil isn't one of those bands that only release albums live, like I expected. It's just sort of a cute gimmicky band name that's spelled the same forwards as it is backwards... sorta like the live album
Black Sabbath came out with back in '82. Also, their second full-length,
Unique Constellation, was not a metalcore album as I assumed from the album art, but an Electro/
Gothic one.
Anyway, I receive the album in the mail, go upstairs and see what it is that I've just received. As it turns out, just about every other expectation I had was thrown off.
As the first song gets started, I'm hit with quite a few things that put me in a position where I don't really know what to say. Video-game-esque synths, viking-like vocals, meat-and-potatoes guitar riffs, and an overall bouncy tone. The riff used at the beginning and a few little parts here and there are interesting, but it did feel quite goofy and awkward to me at first. I can say for sure that it wasn't what I was expecting.
The album progresses in much the same way as the first song, but there's enough variation from song to song that I don't get bored listening to the whole album, and fortunately for me, the synths don't dominate every part of every song. But that bouncy feel is always there, and the general tone of the album is clearly established.
Musical style aside, let's talk about instrumentation. Pretty good all around, nothing really flashy or wild going on anywhere, but nothing that's faceless, generic, or outright boring. I would say the biggest flaw are the synths. I'm fine with synths and keyboards in my music, and don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times where the synths work, but a lot of the time I find it clashes with the rest of the music... and as it turns out, everyone in the album associated with synthetic sound are guest musicians. I think it would have been better if the band remained front and centre, the synths providing backings rather than taking over the music. The guitars are simply done, but it carries and supports the music, and I find the best moments to be when the guitars hold centre stage for a while, as well as moments when they aren't completely taken over by synths.
The album closes with 2 covers, one being the song
Mercy originally by Duffy, and the other is Snow Brigade originally by Mew. All I can say is I didn't know that these were covers until I checked the track listing, so I guess both covers do what covers are meant to do: take a band's idea and mold it to another band's style without damaging the integrity of the original.
Both covers do just that, and close the album well.
In the end, I think this is an alright album, radically different from most everything out there, so much so that I would be at a loss if someone asked me to compare this to another band's works, which I guess is a good thing. I'll be honest, I found the glossy synths and opera/viking vocals to be a little awkward, though. Of course, this album is also pretty hard for me to rate... but in the end I'm giving this a 13/20. I would say that it would be nice if the band maybe took a different vocal approach, because hard as I tried I just could not get into this guy's voice. The synths are half and half, sometimes helping the music, sometimes hurting it. I think that if LiveEvil worked at it they could set their place in the metal world, (or the electronic world, for that matter), but I couldn't really get myself into this music. Songs I would recommend listening to would be 'We Are Newborn', 'Monochromatic Puppets', as both give a good feel for the band's style and the synths work well with each song right through.
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