Just a Fucking Preview!

Hey guys, what's up? Good, good, have a seat. So I recently decided to try and review Foreskin "Just a Fucking Preview". Now, this is a band I've been somewhat familiar with for some time now, having made contact with the vocalist. I've read the reviews previously submitted, and have read about the terrible production quality. I can honestly say, that just made me want to hear it more. I often listen to raw black metal and such low production music, so I didn't think this album would be a problem.

Lets talk about the production quality, shall we? Well, upon hearing the first track, the guitar tone is rather bright and very trebly. The drums come in and all seems well, although some clipping is audible. Then the vocals are heard. Now, at this point, the tracks production takes a nose dive and becomes wholly distorted. I think the problem here was that everything was much too loud, or that the guitar and the vocals were too loud. The bass was inaudible though. Another thing, the vocals seemed to drown out the rest of the instruments. The second track, "Lil Wayne Sucks", has a nice guitar tone, and the drums are turned up to a point where they compliment the guitar tone nicely. However, the bass is still inaudible, which is a rather large concern to me. Much better, only the vocals could've been clearer. The last track, "Ghazi Ausaf Sucks", is sort of a cross between the first two. The hi-hat is rather loud, and the other drums are not loud enough. The guitar is sort of drowned out by the hi-hat, but still audible enough to hear the riff. Bass is STILL inaudible. This is unfortunate, because the songs would've been absolutely amazing with bass (speaking from a musical point of view, of course).

Now about the musical quality. Hearing the first track, the muffled strings begin to engross you in what would eventually turn out to be a rather catchy song. I found myself head banging to it rather soon. The intro has a few mistakes here and there. But I don't mind that since this is just a demo. Overall, the song is a nice, groove filled thrasher. The second track, "Lil Wayne Sucks" has a quite epic riff right from the beginning. It is truly the gem on the demo, being the best track production wise and musical wise. The drums compliment the guitar perfectly. But the track could only be made better with better production and an audible bass track. "Ghazi Ausaf Sucks" is a shorter track. Like I said previously, hi hats are much too high, and the guitar is almost completely drowned out. Although, what is audible is pretty awesome. The mini solo in between verses was pretty awesome, and a nice touch to the song, and the slower riff was also epic.

Overall, the demo has some rather bad production, comparing it to other demos and such, but it's no big deal considering it is "Just a Fucking Preview". Musically, it's not bad, and even pretty good, but production is terrible, like I previously stated. So I guess, if the music were not as good as this, I would've given it a 50 or the like. But because the music was so catchy, I bumped it up to a 72. Keep these riffs, guys. They're pretty damn good!

When I hear this band, I picture my own development as a guitarist / bassist and songwriter. Not that’d I get pretty far in a short time, but I’d like to think of myself surpassing primitive levels such as this demo and making albums that others and myself would enjoy. But of course, why release material that I personally wouldn’t like? Dreaming aside, Foreskin is a bunch of Pakistani guys making music for kicks, and it sure sounds that way.

As assumed with a demo, the production is horrible. This isn’t Mayhem levels, but the three previews on this release don’t have the same production; the first track is scratchy, fuzzy, and louder than the other two; the second is quieter but clearer; the third is quieter and slightly fuzzier. This isn’t a new thing for me as I’ve recently scooped up many demos like this that drag their songs on way too long. Foreskin doesn’t do this, which is a big plus since there isn’t a whole lot of maturity or development (songwriting-wise) to call for it. Now remember though that this isn’t a serious affair, as all the signs this demo presents would have listeners believe.

The first song starts up like scratchy tradition heavy metal, reminding me of Judas Priest but with shredding involved. The riff turns into a groove that I’m definitely headbanging to, and once the harsh vocals kick in it starts to sound like a Sodom with some punk. The playing is sloppy though, especially with the drums that kick in at the back; the drum bass sounds like doors being toppled over and the snares are just clamorous crashes. With the vocals, they’re akin to Tom Angelripper from early Sodom in both seriousness and throaty rasps. Only on the third track are the vocals buried beyond belief like it’s a recording of some guy being tortured in another room. On this last song, the hats are being hit every fucking second and get annoying quickly with their tinny screech.

After those three short tracks to hold you over for about ten minutes, the band was kind enough to include some pictures of the band’s off-time performing their usual stuff. This includes raping, drug dealing, defiling mosques, eating with their left hands (these guys are risk takers), and praying in the opposite direction of Mecca. Well, those were probably done, too, but the only pictures featured are of the guys hanging out and messing stuff up around town. As for the video, What Do You Call A Quarter Pounder In France?… I don’t even know how to describe it – a comedy? I guess, but for a short clip for the band doing a lot of talking broken up between non-linear scenes, it’s pretty confusing… and that’s the short way of explaining it. The longer and more truthful way regards themes of money, power, and society, but the execution isn’t clear on those points.

For a group of friends winging it well, I think I want to hear what the real songs are going to be like. Anything related to Sodom is at least decently good and worth hearing, and these guys try to make it work with passion and energy, even if they aren’t focused.

What do you get when you combine some drunken Pakis, Judas Priest riffs and growling? The short answer is Foreskin. Here's the long answer:

The music here is decent. If you imagine music as (let's say) a soda, then this demo is like if you poured a few sips of soda into a cup, pissed in the cup a bit, then drank it -- you can taste the sweetness, but there's too little of it and it's diluted by piss. This demo is a lot like that in the fact that there's sweet music in here, but there's way too little of it and the god-awful production ruins a lot of the fun.

I mentioned Judas Priest riffs before, which brings me to the guitar work: there are great melodic riffs here and a little [seemingly] random shredding. All in all, it's not bad. But it all comes back to the fact there's TOO LITTLE and the production sucks balls. I guess I shouldn't really bitch about there being too little (it is supposed to just be a preview), but I feel disappointed when I start warming up to a song and it just abruptly ends.

Moving onto vocals we get a bit of a conundrum: there is a huge traditional metal vibe emanating from the guitar and drums, but the vocals are growls. What the fuck? Despite how weird this contrast is, it's not wholly atrocious -- there are moments where the two contrasts fade a bit and the music becomes one flowing entity.

Now reaching the end of my review, I have to say that there are only 2 reasons this demo lost so many potential points: a) the production is unbelievably bad and b) there is way, way too little and is hardly structured. With a little bit of restructuring, lengthening and tweaking of the vocals, this could be something great!

Note: I didn't mention the bass because it's nonexistent, and the drums because they're so amazingly average that there is nothing to even say about them.