Artist: Seemless
Album Title: Seemless
Label: Losing Face/Equal Vision
Bones:
Summary: Safe from my skeet shooting pile!
Reviewed By: 'Disco' Stu McPhee

Last week there was a news article involving the British Queen having no idea who Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck were. Hilarious no doubt and what would have made it even funnier is if the three wise men had responded by getting out their six strings and giving old Liz and Phil the Greek what for.

Sadly when it comes to Metal, I empathise with the Queen. I'm out of my depth...really out of my depth. Sure I may own at least one Nine Inch Nails album (not the one with all that animal fucking the other one), but I'm not exactly ready to slot into the editor's chair at Kerrang!

With Metal, I look for a few things:

Can I understand the singer? If he or she sounds like a dog with rabies 95% of the time then the album goes into my skeet shooting pile. If they have a bit of grunt to them but also appreciates busting out into a bit of a melody then they get the thumbs up.

Is the BPM off the scale? If I can't determine whether the drummer and guitarists are having a fit or not then the album goes into my skeet shooting pile. If they have taken time to come up with a decent chord structure then they get the thumbs up.

What are the lyrics like? If the words sound like they come from some angsty teenager who is sick of his parents because they made him take out the trash then the album goes into my skeet shooting pile. If the lyrics have a bit of substance to them, then they get the thumbs up.

Having said all that, Massachusetts four piece Seemless remain well clear from my skeet shooting pile. Their self titled debut is based on a fair bit of groove. Led Zeppelin begat Soundgarden begat Tool and so on until we get to Seemless. [N.B. Any problems with this lineage, keep in mind I don't do metal]

In a world where Audioslave and A Perfect Circle dominate precedings, I'm pretty sure there is a bit of room for these guys.