Emotionalpunk.com
Media Review
Music Quality: 7.0
Production: 7.5
Originality: 5.5
Tracklisting
2. Lioness
3. Self-Destruct & Die (The Pacifist)
4. Narcotic
5. In Coma
6. Motorcycle (Left With Nothing/Long Forgotten/When It's Gone)
7. Pretty Pretty
8. Sinless City
9. The Victim
10. Paralytic
11. Animals
12. Crashing Down
13. Copy Of A Copy
14. Vices
When faced with losing three out of five band members due to personal reasons, most bands would hang it up and probably start a new project. Dead Poetic’s only two remaining original members, singer Brandon Rike and guitarist Zach Miles, faced this very dilemma. But instead of being put to rest, the band comes into their third full-length release with a revamped line-up that includes two ex-members of the defunct metal/hard-core act Beloved. They also added the brother of their producer Aaron Sprinkle, Jesse Sprinkle (ex-Demon Hunter) on drums to round out the band. The result was Vices, an album that is slow off the starting line but by the end is in a full-on sprint.
The first few tracks led me to believe that I might be in for a long listen as all the tracks have more of a late 90s rock feel to them and sound stereotypical of any song played on a generic alternative/rock radio station. While this is not a bad thing per se as all musicians need to look to somewhere for inspiration, originality needs to be present to distinguish one’s music from the countless other bands out there. Even Chino Moreno (Deftones huge in the 90s) helped co-write and guest sing on a few tracks including “Paralytic” and “Crashing Down.” “Self Destruct And Die” was probably the most familiar of the opening tracks as it began sounding like a track from Tool and as the chorus arrived Brandon sounds like Chester from Linkin Park singing. Throughout the album he is dramatically better when he is singing, not screaming. Tracks like “Cannibal Vs. Cunning” and “Narcotic” have a raw emotion to them, but don’t compare vocally to the smoother style. The instrumentals are well crafted but there weren’t any particular songs that stood out as having amazing beats or riffs.
Tooth And Nail, a Christian record label that spans the gamut from Mae to Underoath and everything in between, fits Dead Poetic nicely in the middle of its roster. The final four tracks have obvious religious messages that might come from a band on Tooth and Nail and prove to be the strongest songs on the album. “Animals” completely caught me off guard as it sounded nothing like the other 13 tracks. It consisted of a handful of notes and a few lines repeated over and over again. The lyrics themselves are simple yet cryptic:
"Take these animals again,
And wrap your ropes around them.
Let the demon take you in,
and tell us stories about him.
I will follow you."
The title track is THE highlight from this album and serves as the closer. It is a dark song about being human and accepting your flaws even when others can’t or choose not to see them. The whole band shines here and created a beautiful song. As a whole, Vices is decent rock album that will please most fans of the genre. There are no easy comparisons which puts stock in their ability to put forth an original solid release.