7

Heavy 70s rock brought into the 21st century

Personally speaking, I don't think the world can have too many 70s-inspired heavy rock bands. Practically, there's a heck of a lot of competition out there. Cut Yourself In Half have fantastically attention-grabbing riffs and a great ear for prog-tinged heavy rock. Think early Black Sabbath or the Alice Cooper group. However, Say Goodbye to the World soon begins to grate. It has so much potential and just doesn't work hard enough. The vocals are ok but there aren't not enough of them, and the riffs just aren't strong enough to carry it to its instrumental crescendo. In the end, it's badly mixed and doesn't showcase the transitions between riffs well enough; the result is jerky and disappointing.

Psycho Human Being Disaster is much more like it, but again it's the mix muddying the vocals and washing them out with reverb. It dampens what should be an exciting and adrenaline fuelled headbanger. A cleaner final mix coupled with a few lessons in subtlety from Opeth or Porcupine Tree would take the emphasis off effects or volume and onto showing those simple riffs to best advantage, because this could be amazing live.