Giles
Self Titled
2.5
I assume the reason you, the reader, come to MetalReview.com is for guidance in the search for good metal. Well, Giles isn't metal and it isn't particularly good. The obvious question is, why even bother to review it? Well, we review everything that lands in our mailbox, no matter what. Dumb policy? Maybe, but I'm a company man who doesn't ask questions. So lets just make this short and sweet.
Giles is the solo project of Between the Buried and Me frontman and former Prayer For Cleansing guitar player Tom Giles Rogers. The contribution of these two bands to the metalcore scene has been more than admirable. Giles sounds nothing like those bands at all. This is one man, under the influence of god-knows-what, fucking around with a synthesizer. The beats are rudimentary as are the lyrics, which range in topic from getting down to the dance station, making your lady friend change her pants at the site of your awesome dance skills, and hicks chasing cannibals. Honestly, I'm not even sure why this album got released, no less on a mid-major label. This is the kind of album you cut on a weekend and laugh about with your friends on a Monday, not the kind of thing you unleash upon the masses. Is it? I'm a metal reviewer, so I don't claim to really know anything about this stuff.
To his credit, there is one moment on this album that is pure gold. At the 1:42 of "Desk Seeking Spades" Rogers offers the following morsel of wisdom. "You get on the street and you come-a, come-a, come-a, come-a down to the dance station ... dance station." Think about that.
In sum, not heavy, not metal. It might be good for what it is, but what it is isn't very good. Save your money. Bad Victory, Bad Mr. Rogers.
