Customer Reviews

Lay Waste the Poets

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This is one of the first Metal albums that I've listened to, so I'm quite naive of this type of music. This album has lyrics within the booklet so that you can understand the story behind their screaming. Inked in Blood's "Lay Waste the Poets" organizes the songs within stanzas. "All that Remains" is about protection of legacy and resisting modest opinions. "Hoping to Dream & Never Return" is a low self-esteem based track that envisions hallucinations. "Lest I Sleep The Sleep of Death" talks about enemies and loneliness, but it ends with the power of needed trust. "Fall From Your Eyes" presents a bit of paranoia and more hostility within the lyrics. "Compassion is My Own Dissent" is another pain-oriented song about hostility that questions the advent of love. "These Sonnettes of Our Lives" encourages an open mind to lyrics from the band. "Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry" is instrumental. "Kiss the Lips of Your Betrayer" is about a confused loving relationship sans trust. "Comatose," basically meaning unconscious, starts off with the fading of music's power and then gets into distrust against someone. "...All That I Have" explains itself, and the last track is instrumental.

I am not 13, by the way.
Anyways, I came across this band when I saw The Agony Scene, Becoming the Archetype, Nodes of Ranvier, and Scarlet back in 2005. The Nodes of Ranvier table was giving away sampler albums that contained songs from Calico System (another great band), Nodes of Ranvier, and Inked In Blood.
However, my first impression of Inked In Blood was not a good one. I thought Joey (vocals) had a horrible scream. I came across this conclusion with the opening of the track 'These Sonnets Of Our Lives' (which also happens to be the best song on the CD). Being a vocalist myself, I thought he was forcing his scream too much, and it just wasn't coming out sounding natural, which is never a good thing when you're screaming. I was not impressed until I heard his high scream, and that solidified my interest in this band.
I picked up this album along with Calico System's 'They Live' back in June, and I was immediately hooked. Thankfully, the forced aspect of the scream isn't so apparent on any of the other songs, and some of the best tracks are the best because of that scream- 'All That Remains...' and 'Lest I Sleep The Sleep Of Death' are some of the better tracks, not that any track is bad on this disc. The vocals range from emo to hardcore to shrieking, and it all sounds great- usually, when there are clean vocals, they're backed by some shrieks, which compliments the emo sound.
The weird thing about Inked In Blood is the pace at which the songs move. These songs are slow. If you're looking for something heavy and fast, you're in the wrong place, because Inked In Blood is anything but fast. The instruments are fast at times, but in general they move very slowly. 'All That Remains...' is a slow chugging song that seems to gradually build momentum right at the time it ends. This may bother some people, but I find it to be a breath of fresh air- metalcore tries too hard to be fast and super heavy, and a band never takes a risk like Inked In Blood did on this record with slower moving heavy songs. Good choice!
Overall, this is a great album, but I would listen to a couple songs from it before you buy to make sure you can tolerate his voice. It's good, but it does take some getting used to.