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The Judas Cradle
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Too Bad They're All Dead
Eulogy Recordings
Release: 5/11/2004
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Rated:
Review by:
Matthew Nanes
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As the metal-core genre breeds new bands, it's hard for
bands to come across interesting enough to keep your
attention. The Judas Cradle, from Mobile, AL, keeps your
attention by pummeling you to the ground with constant
break-neck tempos, off timings and metal riffing on their
album Too Bad They're All Dead. Unfortunately,
for the most part, this has already been done before in the
genre but for what The Judas Cradle lacks in originality, they
make up for in force.
In songs like "What To Do When Your Van Breaks Down In
Oregon" and "The Significance Of One," their fast-paced
tempos mixed with dissonant chords, breakdowns and
constant double-bass drumming, which recall bands like As I
Lay Dying and Norma Jean, will ignite circle pits. With
Slayer-influenced riffing, The Judas Cradle create a
whirlwind of intense hardcore that takes no prisoners. The
band rarely eases down the distortion on their amps, but
when they do, as on "A Severe Case of Writer's Block," it's
too much of a disruption, making the track easily skip-
able.
Lyrically, the band's subjects are about losing love, faith and
friendship. This is nothing new in the world of hardcore and
the topics are much more convincing when approached by
other established bands. Vocally, singer Clayton Kidd takes
early Poison The Well as a template, using deep screams
and spoken-word to get his point across to the listener. The
only time Clayton's technique fails here is when he speaks
"It's hard to talk with a gun in your mouth," which leads to
more screaming on the song of the same name. Also, the
band unfortunately has little in terms of melody to make
their songs memorable. After listening to "If These Walls
Could Talk," their ode to animal rights, perhaps it's a good
thing that they kept the melody for the only song with a
message.
As a whole, The Judas Cradle do a decent job of showcasing
what hardcore is in 2004 on Too Bad They're All
Dead. They are taking a genre of music and doing it
the way it should be done. The problem is so many other
bands are attempting to create this sound and none of them
are distinguishable from the next. In order for The Judas
Cradle to be successful in this genre, they will need to find a
way to make more memorable music. Other than that, they
are good at what they do, which is pummeling metal-core
and shouldn't try to turn the volume down unless they can
make it sound cohesive with their style. |
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