Customer Reviews

Scattered Smothered & Covered

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Play this one for all the dudes that think they know what "heavy" is all about. Unsane destroy all in their path. Soundtrack to watch the world burn

Noise rock is also one of my most favorite genres. Stuff by artists like Today Is The Day, Neurosis, Helmet, and definitely, Unsane. This album is out of print, but you can still get the best-of CD, "Lambhouse", in stores around (not Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart sucks ass.). This CD has all the classics. "Alleged", "Blew", and the all out famous "Scrape". Remember the music video with all those skateboarders crashing and scraping themselves? That's the video for "Scrape", people. If you can find it, buy it. That is all.

I remember when I first discovered Unsane years ago...it was the album cover photo on "Total Destruction" that lured me in like a fish on a hook. Something about a blood splattered Cadillac got by juices flowing, and made me purchase an album totally blind. And I've never regretted it since. "Total Destruction" was a great record, but "Scattered, Smothered, & Covered" raised the bar another momentous notch. This album is a masterpiece of heavy, hard, pounding rock that beats into your head like a sledgehammer...with the tempo of early Helmet, and the intensity of the Melvins. Spencer is a real musician, and his songwriting really peaked on this release. There is just enough complexity to keep you listening from start to finish, and enough driving force to keep your adrenalin boiling the whole way. This is THE record you need to crank up lound, hold on tight, rattle the windows, and scare the neighbors. Period.

Nowadays everyone and their brother is mixing and matching heavy-music among the first and best practicioners of the art. While Unsane's raw, scathing aggression may have screamed "hardcore" upon first listen, there are few if any similarities between these guys and lowbrow one-note "tough guy" hardcore bands like Hatebreed. In fact, the noisy, dissonant tension in Chris Spencer's guitar and the intricacy of Vincent Signorelli's drum assault clearly position Scattered, Smothered, and Covered as a forerunner to the noisecore genre that's so prevalent in heavy music today. The parallels may not be obvious at first, but listen to some Botch, Coalesce, or Burnt by the Sun right after hearing this album and the similarities become clear. Loosely structured, oppressively atmospheric noise may be all the rage these days thanks to the above-mentioned bands (and several others), but Unsane were doing it earlier.

Really, though, what makes this album an undying classic is the emotion these guys so clearly put into what they were doing. Now, when I say "emotion," I am most definitely NOT referring the prepackaged saccharine pumped out by every lame nu-metal and wuss-rock band on the airwaves these days. Rather, Unsane channelled all of their frustration and disaffection into creating some of the most compellingly demented music ever recorded, propelled by a succession of punishing rhythms and throat-ripping screams. Much like its equally brilliant followup, Occupational Hazard, Scattered, Smothered, and Covered is a sort of mood music for psychopaths. It's heavy, it's passionate, and it's technical: what more could you want?

im not much into hardcore,but this,oh my god,its unreal.every song is just pure rock.id call them an extremely [mad],angry,and louder version of helmet.chris does a great job on vox;its nice to see some real low budget stage type vocals.the guitar work by chris tops the show.he is unbelieveable.dave currans bass cant be ignored as it drove the cd along with vinny's drums.gotta love the italian drummer.i know this was unsanes attempt at a more "commercial" record (what a way to do it,huh).the video for scrape was great.in my humble opinion,YOU CANT LIVE WITHOUT THIS CD!A MUST HAVE FOR ANY FAN OF GREAT MUSIC.

i've listened to it over and over about a bazillion times and it never gets old. i can't say enough good things about this band. it's catchy, groovy, heavy, ...it's just AWESOME. any fan of anything should get this album and listen to it religiously everyday because it rules. ... if you've heard the song scrape and liked it, buy all their albums because the rest is just as good.

ok first thing i have to say is what is that guy talking about? he's complaining because a noise core band is all noise? makes no sense to me. but anhyways this music is really good, but occupational hazard is better

So, by now most of you have seen the video for "Scrape." "Dude. Huh huh look at the skateboard crashes. Huh huh." I enjoy carnage as much as the next guy, but it's about the music, stupid, and when it comes down to it, you ask yourself "Do Unsane have the rock?" The answer is a loud, resounding "DUH!" There may be other bands that are heavier, faster, or angrier, but it's hard to find a band that cuts to the chase like Unsane do, and here is Unsane at their prime. The addition of Dave Curran to the Unsane fold provides a more solid, rock-oriented pulse than Pete Shore's Lemmy-esque pseudo-guitar basslines, and Vinny Signorelli finds his feet here and decides that he'd rather bash your skull in than emulate Charlie Ondras's all-over-the-kit drumming style. Together they make the perfect backdrop to Chris Spencer's distorted screams, and the heaviest Telecaster you'll ever hear. I dare you, I double dare you to play "Out" and not break something.

Unsane is not for the squeamish. They are as heavy and loud as any 3 piece can get. They are not a speed metal band, nor a 3 chord punk band. They are a great HEAVY (not hard) rock band. Unsane hits everything dead-on for my taste. If you like loud and heavy music, this is for you.

This is one of the best CDs by unsane. If you like hardcore, you should get this CD as soon as you can.