Worse Than Alone

The Number Twelve Looks Like You | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 10, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Eyeball
• ASIN: B001PWY4HC
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,258 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "My Sword Longs to be Wrapped With Flesh!", September 4, 2009

By 

Kit Kitsch - See all my reviews

This review is from: Worse Than Alone (Audio CD)

It's taken me awhile to digest this album much like it took me awhile to digest Mongrel. But after months of tuning in and out of the album I finally took a good listen and I have to say, I love this album.

Regardless of how great the album really is, The Number 12 is an acquired taste. So, needless to say, Nuclear. Sad. Nuclear and Mongrel took me awhile to get into. But, honestly, I never liked the former so much. Mongrel was OK for me but it wasn't an album that would stay in my CD player for too long. As much as I wanted to love it, the problem was, I couldn't stay interested long enough. Sure, Mongrel had it's moments, but it was a flawed effort and I felt annoyed at the vocals quite honestly. I love the idea behind them, but the constant high-pitched screams definitely have me a headache and that's partly why I had trouble consistently listening to it.

Mongrel wasn't bad, but it wasn't perfect. This album had everything I wanted from Mongrel. The high pitched vocals are still there, but this time around, they're not anywhere near as annoying. Probably because they're a lot more cushioned then they were before. Mongrel had very raw sounding vocals. Also we have a lot more deep growling in this album and it complements the screams very nicely.

Glory Kingdom starts it off, and it's definitely one of my favorites. It's not a melodic as some of the other tracks, but it's just way too catchy not to love. Once it gets to the creepy interlude of the song where "my sword longs to be wrapped with flesh" is chanted, you'll just get mesmerized but the creepiness of the song and the amazing cymbal-work of Jon Karel, who, in my opinion, is one of the best drummers out there right now.

The rest of the album experiments a lot more with the jazz aspects of The Number 12, and it's just so well done that I was simply floored. Simply put, this is my favorite release by them and I feel like they're peaking now.

I love the talent in Mongrel, but I love the song writing and creativeness in Worse Than Alone even more. If you're a Number 12 fan, or a mathcore fan, or just want to hear something different, then check this album out.

3.0 out of 5 stars They want to be anyone but themselves..., January 2, 2011

By 

dontbesojumpy (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Worse Than Alone (Audio CD)

man, albums like this annoy me in a very specific way that makes me want to go yell in the face of anyone that'll listen.

here we have a band who has established themselve over time as really mathy, techy and unique.
then they release this--an album that's clearly just trying to emulate their peers.

it starts with the album art--real colorful collage, huh? just like Dillinger's Miss Machine.

i suppose the music isn't emulating their tech metal contemporaries as much as the vocalist is. he is clearly trying to sound like whoever the wannabe mike patton dude is in dillinger escape plan, and when he's not trying to be that guy, he's trying to be the singer from between the buried and me.
and the dorky deep voice part of track two is just embarrassing to listen to.

speaking of BtBM, all the clean parts sound like 12 is having a clone contest. the clean, jazzy interludes with singing is fairly obvious.

sigh.

these guys have mad chops. the guitarist could probably flail out house fires with his tornadic solos. and at times, the blast beats from the drummer is up there with anyone this side of grindcore. and listen to the drum intro on R,R,R...sounds like a pissed off octopus trying to teach the kit who's boss. i mean that in a good way--the guy's amazing.

and i like this album in parts. heck, a few parts are flat-out awesome. but wading through the copy-cat nonsense to get to them is exhausting. bands that clearly have talent but want to other bands and rip them off super-directly just rub me raw.

as mitch puts it, "I hate turkeys. If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys. There's turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Some one needs to tell the turkey: man, just be yourself. I already like you, little brother. You do not need to emulate the other animals."

4.0 out of 5 stars Different sound but still great, June 18, 2009

By 

D. Carney "The Midweek Mayhem" (Worcester,MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Worse Than Alone (Audio CD)

Most people, including myself hate to see a band change so drastically over its career. With that said I can see how some would consider "Worse Than Alone" a disappointment. However for me this is not the case! I really like the new number 12 style. It is technical and very diverse. There classic number 12 heavy and grind parts and new jazzy parts fused into this album. As musicians, the number 12 are at their peak on this album. Jon Karel is one of the best drummers around these days. I think that "Worse than Alone" is great but not as great as "Mongrel." I think this album has just a little too much structure and simple (relatively speaking of course) rythums at times. If you like bands that fuse death metal, grind, Jazz, Latin and alternative rock, then you will probably enjoy this album.