40 Below Summer
The Last Dance
5.6
40 Below Summer…what a horrible, horrible band name. Nevertheless, their newest album has fallen into my lap, and the least I can do is tell you anxious people what is going on here. Well…I guess I’ll try and do my best, as I am far from an expert when it comes to nu-laden, radio ready, angst-driven, I-really-want-to-get-rich metal such as this. So what can you expect from The Last Dance? Did you read the slight description I attempted to sling upon this stuff sentence before last? Well, there you have it folks, but not to fear, as I’m sure all of you underground freaks are just dying to hear about the music at hand.
As most of us here are lovers of the true underground and don’t really pay much attention to attempts at cashing in on the nu-movement (that has been dead for quite some time mind you), I have to admit that 40BS do write some catchy songs. The problem is they would have been better off being served upon the deaf n’ dumb Billboard lovers about 8 or 9 years ago. The guitars are pretty decently played and I like the tone, but the problem is the riffs themselves. Fairly simple structuring that tries driving the nu-ish rhythms home, yet takes a wrong turn down a dead end road that luckily for the band is where the rest of the nu-metal bands await them. The album starts off kind of promising with the somewhat ear grabbing "New Age Slaves" and "5 of a Kind", with a half-hearted attempt at sounding somewhat ballsy, but then the ballad and radio ready songs like "Tell Me How", "Relapse" and terrible closer "Cut in Half" rear their ugly and overdone approaches at achieving either one of two things - getting the band laid, or…well…I guess that’s about all they’re good for. "It’s About Time" comes out with its almost G n’ R Axel-isms (not surprising considering they also cover the Appetite for Destruction hit "It’s So Easy" on this record) and had me cringing when the telephone booth vocals "aRose", no pun intended. At this point I could hardly enjoy my morning cup o’ Joe and almost felt like telling the boss I had to go home for the day. But hey, we've all been through worse, haven't we? Yeah, right. The singing is quite emo-tional throughout most of the record with some grittiness tossed into the background, but at the same time it’s very, very hard to take seriously as it just sounds too orchestrated, lacking the heart and soul most of us with a good sense of musicianship require. Aside from the singer and some of the guitarist's slightly better riffs, the rest of the band doesn’t matter, because it’s all about the singy choruses, if you can struggle through the rubbish surrounding them.
There’s really not a whole lot more to talk about here. If you’ve enjoyed the band’s past work then my guess is you’ll enjoy this album as well. If you haven’t heard much from the band and are too metal for anything nu to enter your world then stay away. It’s that simple. This album caters to the radio loving folks that I really don’t think spend too much time with us here, but who am I to say that a lot of you nu-closet dwellers won’t like this album? So there you have it folks…the new album from 40 Below Summer. For the sake of true metal lovers across the globe, let’s hope this really is ‘the last dance’.
