Overtone
Overtone
(Independent)
The One Seventeens
Chopper City
(Top and Bottom)
Opprobrium
Discerning Forces
(Nuclear Blast)
Some CDs are probably not designed to be sold. Sales are good, but more importantly, the discs serve as calling cards to let the media and clubs know the bands exist, so commenting on those discs is a tricky affair. Overtone’s self-titled first disc brings this matter up because as a consumer good, the production works against it being a satisfying home-listening experience, but as a tool to speed the gig-getting process, it works well, showing the band’s range and direction.
Overtone suggests that the band’s intense, moody and have done their modern rock homework. They understand the value of a charismatic, big-voiced singer—Chris Recinos—and how to write hooks in the current metal/funky-metal arena. That means songs like “Do You Remember” and “Savior” are probably pretty powerful live. As a calling card disc should, Overtone shows the band’s range, from ballads like “Black and Blue” to the Creed-like “After” to the funk metal “Feel It.” Unfortunately, the cover of Seal’s “Crazy” suggests they aren’t above the current cliche of rejuvenating an ’80s hit by turning up the volume and steamrolling the groove. The cover and the variety suggest that Overtone might benefit from doing a little less homework and planning a little less, but since they’re putting bodies in the Rock & Bock on a regular basis, there’s clearly something to hear; Overtone though, only hints at what it is.
A casual observation: people that tell you they’re wild never are. Similarly, by the time The One Seventeens mention being “fast, cheap and out of control” in “Helium,” the opening track on their Chopper City, you’re already aware they’re none of the above. Instead, the One Seventeens are a fairly meticulous pop duo that pay a lot of attention to texture and mood. Responses to this album will have a lot to do with listeners’ affections for mid-tempo, slightly meditatitive pop and theatrical women’s voices because singer Ursulla is given free range to belt, whisper, jump octaves, quaver and moan. Me, I’d like to hear a little more restraint, but people liked Berlin in the ’80s, so maybe this is a taste matter. Live, when adrenaline picks up the tempos a bit, they should be pretty interesting; on record, they’re pleasant and occasionally attractive . . . though I doubt that’s all they’re going for.
The heaviest, heaviest, most together, heaviest local rock album in a long time—maybe ever—is Opprobrium’s Discerning Forces. It’s heavy in the death metal way—really fast, really precise guitars with the vocals produced to sound like another attack instrument—which is to be expected from Metairie-by-way-of-Brazil’s Francis and Moyses M. Howard, the brothers who formed Incubus before Opprobrium. The lyrics could be describing episodes of Friends for all anyone can tell, though with titles like “Merciless Torture” and “Awakening to the Filth,” that seems unlikely. Lyrics, however, are obviously not why people buy metal. They want the fastball, the heart punch, the in-your-face blast, and that Opprobrium delivers; the result is a hard, credibly menacing album.
