Love and Other Disasters

Sonic Syndicate, a band formed with intentions of sounding like Soilwork and In Flames, present to you their biggest piece of shit yet: Love and Other Disasters.

Sonic Syndicate (SS for short) used to be a decent band when they only had 'Eden Fire' out. It wasn't anything groundbreaking and it surely wasn't a masterpiece, but it was just modern melo-death with some -core thrown in. Then they released their follow-up, Only Inhuman, which was a major piece of generic shit. Finally, they release this generic piece of metalcore/modern rock wanna-be-melodic shit. They went from a Soilwork/In Flames influenced band to a modern rock band. SS really give off the attitude that they're "rawkers" with their 'Jack of Diamonds' (beware, it's bad) music video. The whole video is plagued with cliches like fast cars, hot babes and outdoor activities. Yeah, you guys are super cool! Now shove those car rentals and paid prostitutes down your humongous throat and shut the fuck up.

This album goes no where. Every song has your typical verse/chorus/verse/chorus/lame solo or bridge/chorus x2 formula so there's really no progression at all. There's not a single strong song on here because they all sound the fucking same. It's all watered-down metalcore with a 'rawker' attitude (spiked hair, highlights, dark clothes and the other cliches of rock music). Yawn. We've seen this shit before.

None of these guys can play their instruments for shit. The guitarists never scale down the fret board because if they added any variety in their tone they'd lose half their scene kid fanbase. Hell, enough ragging on the guitarist, it's the vocalists who need a lesson in singing (stop filtering your vocals through program, you both sound like shit) and screaming. If there was a contest for having the worst vocals in music, these two reprobates would be up there with the dude from Waking the Cadaver, the dude from Theory of a Deadman and all the black metal kvlt bands. These guys need to choke on each other's dick and stop causing migraines through sound waves. Their raspy, half-assed vocals do nothing beneficial for the band.

This album really isn't melodic, either. Adding a sing-along chorus works when your front man can sing, but when he can't it's best to either kick him out of the band or give him some vocal lessons. And as I said before, the guitars never stray from a rhythmic sound so the only melody on this album are the occasional keyboards, which aren't really that melodic. They just fit in with the song so you're left with nothing more than downtuned emo shit.

All in all, this album is a quick cash-out for Sonic Syndicate. It's banal, it's stupid and it's the epitome of a sell-out band. Recycled riffs misplaced everywhere, happy-go-lucky fun time choruses that all the 13-year-olds can sing along to and ultimately, piss-poor song writing. Do not support this record or any of their future endeavors until both vocalists are gone (one of them quit, thank god). Then maybe they'll be worth looking at. However, until then, Grab 'Eden Fire' then leave these poor sods to wither in their own stupidity. Your sell out music can't buy you respect, assholes.