Reviews

I’m not sure why I was surprised with disappointment. By definition, generic means to be part of the larger group, the general view of a specific class or genre (a generalization of sorts). It seems natural that through the power of logic and reasoning, at least half, if not a strong majority, of everything in a specific group or genre would come through as what would be known as “generic.” To put it simply, the only question raised after this honest analysis is this: Why was I surprised Radio Suicide was upsettingly typical? Call me unfair, but the fallout of bands like Atreyu and The Used has been anything but a savory time in punk rock history. It has been carbon copied a hundred times over, every eight seconds since their albums were released. I can’t say I hated Radio Suicide’s EP, The Irony of Sound, as a whole, but that may be due to the fact that this is a no-risk genre to play in, almost more so than street punk.
 
Each song of the album The Irony of Sound contained its own stereotype of modern screamo/post-hardcore music. The song “In Memory” has an obvious Taking Back Sunday influence from the Tell All Your Friends album, displaying a defined high cry with a more guttural wail to back it up. It varies in that it contains some haphazardly placed background screams and a brief, awkwardly situated whispering section with less creative instrumental parts. The opening track of the CD itself, “Suffer Well,” combines every stereotype I could think of; hard rocking chords to open the song that breaks into melodic guitar chords with smooth singing and what I’m going to call a Scooby Doo scream.
 
To abridge an analysis of the songs “Say Goodnight,” “Playing Dead,” and “Building an Empyre,” which served to impress me just as much as the first two tracks of the album, it sounds a lot like Senses Fail or The Used, and when I say “a lot” I mean “exactly.”
 
I try very hard not to inject too much personal opinion about “the scene” when reviewing an album and I try very hard not to be mean spirited, but enough is enough. I can respect the fact that they’re working independently but the album was nothing special and actually became quite annoying after a while. They obviously played what they thought sounded good to others and flushed their personal ideas or musical aspirations down the toilet; I hope I’m not the only one who finds this disappointingly sad.
 
On the other hand, I understand this musical genre has an audience and that there are people somewhere who would enjoy the CD, so I can’t say fans of The Used or Senses Fail aren’t going to like it. Then again, under the “Sounds Like” section of their myspace.com account it only says “RADIO SUICIDE,” so I guess only the fans of Radio Suicide would like Radio Suicide. Hopefully, their musical efforts after The Irony of Sound will be something to hold as their own personal style. Two stars.