With a certain amount of build-up surrounding them, will this follow up to Bloodlust Casualty make all the hype justified?
Following up on the success of their debut mini album 'Bloodlust Casualty' Manchester based I-Def-I have returned to the fold. After supporting bands such as American Headcharge, Skindred, Breed 77 and Dry Kill Logic on tour, opening the Myspace stage at Download 2006, and gaining support from Radio One, Xfm and Kerrang Radio, these boys seem like they are on to a winner at the moment. With a certain amount of build-up surrounding them, will this follow up make all that hype justified?
'In the Light of a New Day', sounds very American. Not that being American is any bad thing – well unless that American is war mongering buffoon George W. Bush; a man so abhorrent he deserves to be hung, drawn, quartered, then torn apart by wild feral dogs and if any trace of his being is still left after that, it should be napalmed or something similarly destructive.
Although I-Def-I are touted as metal, very few tracks have a traditional or even modern metal sound, this is metal–lite if you will. You also get the feeling that this is a bit of a paint by numbers effort, by that I mean it sounds as if they have stolen flourishes from other bands to create the I-Def-I sound.
Opening with The Horror, the album starts off relatively promisingly by mixing some heavy guitar parts and then juxtaposing them against a melodic breakdown. But the paint by numbers comes into play and singer Chris Maher's voice sounds at points like Linkin Park's Chester Bennington. Again track seven, 'Tunnel Rat' has a Slash from Guns and Roses-esque solo: heavily extended to the point of self indulgence and just when you think it's coming to a close it starts up again. But the most noticeable steal on the album is in 'Asyla (She of the Flames)' which has the exact same intro as A Perfect Circle's 'Judith', it is a little heavier sounding, but nonetheless, if I were Maynard James Keenan's lawyer, I'd be starting legal proceedings now.
Sounding like a whole host of other bands with echoes of Breed 77, Linkin Park and just about every other American rock band, this album does not justify the hype surrounding the band. At just under an hour, and 15 tracks, if it were more inspired it would be terrific value for money. This is just simply a very average album.