Transport League
Grand Amputation
4.8
This is quite the different release to be on Crash Music. At least from the material I've heard come off of there it is. This 7-song marathon from Transport League (what a goofy name.Am I the only one who finds that name hilarious?) is not only extremely short for a "full-length", it is also nu-metal, no matter which way you look at it. There's just no getting around it. Now don't go dismissing it right away because it does have some substance to offer, mainly monster guitar riffs. "Lobotomico" has a monster downtooned riff, and as simple as it may be, it does have a mean feel when the 2nd and 3rd layers come in, but it is definitely a nu-metal riff and it is the framewerk for pretty much the entire song. "Disconnect Massconnect" continues the theory of coming up w/ one riff and building the entire song on it. As much as I hate to admit it I do really like the riff. Very similar to Machinehead's guitar sound and riffing on The More Things Change.By this time vocals have established a style and it's what you discover in radio-rock and nu-metal these days: Screams to clean, and back to screams, then an "emotional" clean again. Overused is an understatement as far as the genre goes and originality factor is at absolute zero. "El Gordo" comes in and it's now official: This songwriting style and riffing is no doubt nu-metal. The clean vocal chorus in this song is absolutely horrific. It reminds me of Soylwerk's ridiculous forced sugar-cookie chorus garbage & makes me seriously nauseous. "Slack, Wrist, Smack" has another monster escalating riff that once again, the whole song depends on to ensure it's survival. Whisper vox comparable to Corn's sneak about and abruptly erupt into angsty shouts. "Safe Houdini" has another disgusting Swedish MTV2 wannabe forced chorus that is just plain unbearable for my ears. I'd rather eat an entire 5 lb. bucket of sweet tarts in one sitting than have to listen to those choruses. What's worse, the 1st "song" is nothing but a 7 second electronica clip, and the last "song" is exactly the same. Come on guys. This is not a complete offering you have here. If you're gonna make nu-metal songs than go ahead, but at least put more than 5 real songs on it and charge people full price.
Once again I'll admit to liking 2 songs on here, but they serve nothing more than pure nostalgic purposes and a kwik mean downtooned riff or 2. Transport League is shooting for catchiness and it's blatantly obvious. Along w/ strenuous efforts to get their new video "accepted" by MTV, that is all I need to hear to become completely disgusted to the fullest extent. Time to head for the toilet.
