Customer Reviews

Rattlesnake!

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first heard ASL my freshman year of college. And Don't Forget To Breathe was very much of it's time - it fit well with the burgeoning screamo scene, and ASL stood above the pack - a dash of pop-punk, a splash of emo, and a healthy dose of screaming made for a great listen.

Their follow-up, Faso Latido (which I sort of like) was a major let down, and ASL lost 3 members in the aftermath. With their re-birth, and release of their self titled album, it was clear that ASL was back in full force.

If anything, Rattlesnake! proves that this band is not a one-trick pony. As great as the self-titled was, it was a bit too stylistically similar to their debut. Rattlesnake! shatters their previous ties with emo. ASL has obviously been listening to a LOT of Every Time I Die - opener Rattlesnake!, The Turn, The Prestige, and Everybody's Got A Lil' Fonz N' 'Em, come close to blatant rip-offs of ETID riffs, but have enough signature ASL in them, that they are amazing. Joe's screams have never sounded better, and Dan's voice has lost all of its whine. Thick riffs, breakdowns that make you want to destroy everything in sight, and some really solid clean-singing passages. This album is fast and furious, and made for the mosh pit. This is ASL on crack and ETID. Highly recommended.

P.S. The cover of Toxic is actually pretty great!

That had to be the headline for this review cause that's what this cd is , Its in your face, its Very heavy ,Yet Melodic ,Different ,Yet Its still a 100% Static Lullaby. Been a fan since And Dont Forget To Breath and yeah every album since then has been a little different But not in a bad way there simply doing what every other band is doing there just growing up there getting older wiser and there music is evolving..There is absolutely nothing wrong with this Rattle Snake its Rad! Its A little Darker then what they Have put out but after they released there self Titled You could kinda tell that they were going in this direction.Any Static Lullaby fan has to have this one..its great

I never used to really like A Static Lullaby. I never thought they were bad, per se, but nothing seemed to really jump out and seriously catch my interest.

All of that changed with "Rattlesnake!", and might I say, with a genre saturated with laughable bands like "Bullet For My..." and "Atreyu", this is a welcome breath of fresh air.

First and foremost, the drummer is absolutely fantastic. Too many drummers give you an attitude of, "To fit in with the trend, I'm supposed to play really fast and barrage you with mostly kick, snare, and 4/4 cymbal mashing. Check it out! Look how fast I can go! This makes me talented!"

This guy knows what it means to play the drums. It's not about speed. It's not about changing time signatures so much that you APPEAR to be some sort of genius - but only to people who have no critical ear for music. It's about style and coherency - both to yourself and with the rest of the band. He nails it. The same is true for the strings - the guitar lines are full of wit and character, and the bass - well, we'll get to that later.

Overall, the biggest improvement has got to be the vocals. What can I say? The lyrics don't suck anymore. Not only do they no longer suck, but they seem to be creative and aware. They're very memorable. The singing has also greatly improved, though they always seem to be doubled - which is an easy way to make vox sound better. Oh, and the MIX of this album is absolutely jaw-dropping. There's still compression galore, but it's not so heavy that the cymbals sound all "swooshy" or that the whole song appears to have a sidechain meant for techno attached to it.

There are a few things, however, that make me refrain from giving this 5 stars.

First, the bass. Listen, I understand. I'm a bass player. You're the backbone of the entire song. If you go too crazy, everyone else loses it, and the whole song drowns. But the trick is finding those openings. Not just when the strings/vox stop and it's just you and the drums. No. Those "other" openings. You're not as constrained as you appear to portray yourself here. Or perhaps you just got drowned in the mix. Breaking through that is your responsibility, though.

Second, I know you had a producer and a label on your back, wanting that "package deal". The album had to follow thematically, from beginning to end. It sucks. It's ignorant on the label's part. I just wish that people in the business weren't that way. I would've liked to hear more variety in style from song to song. When albums refuse to break genre or allude to a different genre, no matter HOW GOOD you are (and this album is VERY good) - it gets redundant. It gets tired. By the end of the album, I was still very impressed - but I was also over it five songs ago.

Just my two cents. Overall, this is a gigantic step forward for ASL - and you've no doubt inspired a whole new generation of bands to up their game. Just don't screw it up with the next album ;) 4/5

A static lullaby aren't an easy act to pin down. 2003's ...and don't forget to breathe was simply stellar, and hinted at the greatness this band could become if they kept at it. Then came Faso La-suck-o, which as the name that i just made up but sounds similar to the actual title would imply, sucked. The heaviness, the emotion, was essentially ditched in favor of a more streamlined pop-rock sound. Flash forward to 2007, and ASL are right back on top with their self-titled record. The screams, the heavy guitars, the emotion, all in tact. BUT...it didn't take long for that to die (again), because less than two years later, we got Rattlesnake!, a steaming pile of sh-ockingly bad mock 80's "metal" (if 80's metal somehow came back to life in the year 2008, yah got it here). Sure, it's their heaviest record yet. But really, heaviness without emotion is just plain bad. And 80's metal.

I don't know what ASL are trying to prove, but I hope it works out for them. In the meantime, if you were a huge fan of Breathe or Self-titled, you'll undoubtedly be disappointed. I highly suggest picking up Underoath's new record instead. Now there's a band that's knows how to do it to it!