Dan, James and Alex take a look at some of February’s news and releases as well as:
You can find episode 3 here:
After the 2019 EP with Travis Barker, ‘BLOODLUST’, nothing, nowhere has spent some time cooking up new album ‘Trauma Factory’ but what has emerged from Joe Mulherin’s treehouse studio in vermont may leave you with room for more. For the duration of this review, I will be comparing this album to the experience of trying a new burger in a well-liked restaurant.
The album opens with an interesting introduction track with an anecdotal story being told over some atmospheric guitar. The excitement this generated is like the moment you see your food on its way to the table and you’re so ready to get stuck in. Your excitement is quelled however when you pick up the bun to notice it feels quite soggy and greasy. Lightly toasted buns are always much better although at least it isn’t stale. ‘lights (4444)’, although not a bad song on its own, feels quite flaccid and underwhelming following the build up of the introduction. I think a harder track with a bit of a toasty crunch such as ‘blood’ would have kicked off the album with the energy it is lacking.
You really don’t get the full flavour of this album until you’ve bitten through the first few tracks which, although lovingly made, in my opinion is quite average emo-rap until you get to the juicier patty underneath it all. It’s only when we get to ‘pain place’ where anything particularly interesting starts to happen and the catchy, pop-punk like chorus of ‘fake friend’ was the first song to really grab my attention. We’re already 8 tracks in by this point and have realistically already given up on the burger and moved on to the fries. But this is where the album redeems itself.
You now experience the heavy saltiness of ‘death’ as the intensity is pushed right up with groaning guitar and much more of a frantic rap-rock sound. In fact, the whole of the second half of the album is brilliant with ‘pretend’ being probably my favourite and the fantastic emo anthem ‘barely bleeding’ bringing Trauma Factory to a grand end. The only problem is, although these fries taste great, you already knew they would because you’ve had them before.
Something I think this album suffers from is the fact that 7 of it’s songs have already been heard as singles starting with ‘nightmare’ in January 2020, over a whole year ago. This has perhaps both provoked too much expectation as well as making some songs feel skippable due to them being sat in my playlists for months already.
All this said, a burger is still a burger at the end of the day and the great thing about burgers is that you can always pick out the gherkin or tomato next time. Either that or just order the fries instead.
You can hear myself, James and Alex discuss ‘Trauma Factory’ in the upcoming episode of The Ragamuffin Music Podcast. Subscribe at the YouTube link below to be one of the first to hear it.
Also, follow The Birdbox on Twitter and Instagram for more stupid reviews like this one.
While She Sleeps have today (7/2/21) released ‘You Are All You Need’, the second single from their upcoming album ‘Sleeps Society’ after it’s exclusive first play on Daniel P Carter’s BBC Radio 1 Rock show.
The Yorkshire Metalcore legends have spent the past few weeks adding the finishing touches to their new album with regular teasers and updates being shared to their Sleeps Society Patreon community.
‘Sleeps Society’ will be released on 16th April, which still feels like some time away but at least we now have 2 singles from it to keep us going until then.
‘You Are All You Need’ can be heard on streaming platforms right now!
The Birdbox