Customer Reviews

Making Monsters (Jewl)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was super excited when I heard there was a new Combichrist album coming out. In the genre they are probably my absolute favorite. I like Icon of Coil, but it just doesn't have the same bite, power, and energy as Combichrist. When I received the album it was a matter of seconds from the mailbox to the stereo. As other reviewers have noted, there are some good tracks on the disc but overall I was slightly disappointed. This is a much slower album without the same raw aggression I have come to know and love from this band. In addition, I found myself thinking that the tracks sounded quite similar. Don't get me wrong, I am glad that I purchased this album even if just for the "good" tracks, but this is not the album you want to buy if you are listening to Combichrist for the first time. What I am really hoping is that this will be one of those albums that grows on me the more I listen to you - fingers crossed!

I love Combichrist and as far as electro (EBM) style bands I think Combichrist are one of the better live acts. Sadly, this album fails to entertain. The production is kinda "cheapish" for lack of a better word...everything seems rushed and out of place. The music isn't that catchy...most of the songs are stupid...and the vocal style is horrible on allmost every song on the album. The prior Combichrist album are lightyears ahead of this verry dissapointing album. Bottom line....THIS IS NOT A GOOD COMBICHRIST ALBUM!!!

I got this cd today and it wasn't what I expected. It's not what I would call horrible, but it's not that great. So far I've only liked a few songs, I'm hoping it grows on me. Something is just 'missing'. Honestly though, if Amazon allowed you to return opened cds, I would send this back today.

Hopefully this cd will grow on me but I'm not counting on it. I wouldn't recommended this to anyone. Throat Full of Glass is a good song, so just get the mp3. The album isn't worth it.

I like this release, just about every track is good, theres really no low points. I don't now if there are really any tracks that stand out among the others as reigning supreme, but favorites, especially after seeing them on 11/19, include Slave To Machine and They, both of which have been beckoning for some heavy rotation. I was also instantly drawn into Never Surrender and Throat Full Of Glass after the first listen.

This one is a bit different from previous releases as the tone seems to be darker and... more serious? (nothing like Happy Pig Whore Mom and the like). Perhaps that's what is getting some of the negative reviews? Combi, as offensive as they can be (to others), always had some 'fun' element in their violent, angry assault. That element seems to be missing here. I'm fine with the change and live, the new stuff sounds really great. Glad I bought this and stuck with the band.

I'm not one of those guys that "only likes the bands first cd and everything they do afterwards is crap." No. I have owned multiple Combichrist albums throughout the years. I bought this one a few days ago and loved it. The music is great, the vocals are different but in a good way. I listen to a lot, and I can definitely dig this album.

Combichrist has made alot of changes throughout the years, they started out as a powernoize project then eventually went into more of an EBM sound with more vocals. No matter what they did though, they've always had a very powerful sound...so, this album completely threw me off.

My two best friends and I are Combichrist fangirls...but we found ourselves frowning through pretty much the entire album. This is a very watered down, depressed Combichrist. Boring, generic beats and Andy's "singing voice" makes me cringe. When I listen to old albums, I get excited. I feel like raging and dancing until I die, and it never gets old. Where with Making Monsters, I find myself to be indifferent through most of it. Throat Full Of Glass makes me feel like I'm sitting in a shobby bar, alone and miserable on a rainy day. I really hate to say all of those things because I don't want to believe that the same group that got me into the scene is the same one that made this catastrophe of an album.

I love when a band or artist changes it up but, this isn't good. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

It's a good thing this band has a strong back catalogue, because otherwise this album would be invisible in the mountain of similar generic, unremarkable electronic music made by newbies. I'm sorry, but this is just not good Combichrist. Many of the songs are slow, plodding messes without any hooks or contagious sounds. Not interesting, not powerful, not threatening, just as bland as sonic hands-full of dough. Andy has an awful singing voice--it's weak, it's very much out of tune, and yet he tries and tries to sing on so many tracks! Andy's voice is made for industrial-strength shouting, like in "Sent to Destroy" and "All Pain is Gone"--THOSE are killer songs. Andy's sounding more tired here.

There are a few stabs of harder songs, but they're not actually very interesting. F---machine is an un-creative as they come: heap misogyny and abuse on a woman, tell her she deserves it--that's the whole song. It's crap. It's trite. It's not rebellious, it's typical woman-hating sexism without even the benefit of any interesting music (just a bunch of loops piled on top of each other to accompany Andy's rather wretched and SERIOUSLY disappointing sexism). Hey Andy: abusing women isn't edgy. It's not creative. It's not sexy. It's not fun. It's not even shocking. It makes you seem like a tool. It's just dull.

So there it is--the album I've awaited more eagerly than any other this year, and it's dull. Sure, some Combichrist fans will suck up to it, telling Andy another thousand times how awesome he is, but come on...they know. They *know* this album is weak. The songs are sludgy and so generic that only a couple are even conspicuous. They *know* Andy's singing voice stinks (but apparently nobody was brave enough to tell him that). This sounds like a gazillion other electro-industrial bands you've never heard of because they weren't noticeable, now forgotten in random COP and Cleopatra catalogues of 1994.

I have to be the first to admit, when I first heard the album I was not impressed at all. It didn't have the same sound as the other albums. I know bands evolve and progress but this felt like an entirely different band performing.

Then I went to New York to see them live supporting Rammstein. About half of the songs they played were from this album. Let me clear: SEE THEM LIVE TO APPRECIATE THE ALBUM. After getting back I bought the CD from Amazon and ended up enjoying it alot. Im not saying I love all of the songs but it does end up being a good album.

Favorite Tracks: Follow the Trail of Blood, Throat Full of Glass, Never Surrender

Ouch! What was Andy thinking when he made this monstrous disaster? I am sorry to report as a Combichrist fanatic that this album falls short of anything I could ever proudly give anything other than a single star rating on Amazon. This is the worst Combichrist album to date. Actually, this is the only bad Combichrist album to date but still....ouch!...Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

Andy's new album is disappointing. I wanted more songs like scarred and get your body beat but there are no real stand out tracks. He comes off bored with the whole ebm resurrgence he seems to have spawned. If you wanted the old Combichrist, then do not buy this.