The Block
Done With Denial
The first couple of times I listened to this album I kept saying, “It will grow on me”. But, alas, it never did and I am stuck giving it this rating. While it sports some nice even riffs and cool choruses that is pretty much all it has. Though the album lasts for only around 40 minutes there’s a kind of same feeling to each and every track that makes this album just one in a basket full of many bands.
To start with I have to say, I don’t dislike this album at all, and I think it is quite fine, but it falls into that cliché gothic metal groove that lessens the enjoyment for me. Take the song “Masquerade” for example, which has some cool parts to it; mainly the drums which are very nice and clean and some guitar parts. Though it has these good parts, it is the same chorus and “popular”-verse thing that throws me off. Throughout the whole song it is the same thing over and over again and Becky’s vocals aren’t really that good lyrically of musically. The way she crescendos from low to high or vis. Versa throughout the whole album provides a cheap kind of feeling that I don’t really enjoy. One part of the vocals I do like is the growling, most notably on the song “Analize”. Even though they are mediocre, it breaks up the same old stuff that Becky puts forth.
Some of the highlights from this album come from the musicians. The wide variety of sounds and instruments make this album somewhat more noticeable than say, if all they used were a guitar, bass, and drums. The incorporation of synths and keyboards on the aptly named song “Electrified” adds a nice touch. The synths in this song flow very smoothly on this track and blend nice with the guitars until they fade away. The drums are nice but kind of hard to hear so you mostly hear only guitars and vocals during most of the songs. The production on this album is okay but it has a sort of chintzy feel to it, but in a way I think it exemplifies what this band is trying to do. As I said before, though, the drums are a bit hard to hear so if those could be brought up in the mix that would make this album more enjoyable.
Overall this is not a bad second release from My Inner Burning. They have some issues such as a samey feeling throughout, kind of basic song structure, and lower-fi production but those can be easily fixed. But overall “Eleven Scars” gets 2.5 stars.