Speakers For The Dead - Prey For Murder
Speakers For The Dead rose from the ashes of Gryp which was a sort of alternative metal band. Gryp was on several different Indie labels before their last label disbanded, leaving Gryp behind. After a while vocalist Curtis Shamlin and Guitar player Jason Garcia formed Speakers For The Dead and started to play a kind of progressive hardcore / metalcore.
In a way it’s very strange to see how I reacted on this album. The first time I played the album it didn’t affect me that much. A couple of times later I started to realise this album wasn’t that bad at all. By now the album hasn’t been out of my CD player for almost a week and still I’m discovering the record.
Prey For Murder starts with ‘Finally’ which is an easy listening metalcore song with both clean vocals and brutal screams. The beginning of this song and also the album has a very dark and almost scarifying riff which immediately grabbed my by the throat. This first song also sets the tone for the rest of the album, because this is not a normal metalcore album with clean vocals every now and then.
The second song on the album ‘Far’ tells me I’m right, again it starts with an atmospheric intro followed by typical Machine Head drumming and riffing but halfway through the song there’s a solo that you won’t expect. It’s not that the solo is misplaced it’s more like adding a different kind of view to the song.
During the album I encountered several of these moments where Speakers Of The Dead take a song and put it into another level by simply adding a great riff, solo, vocals or drumbeat. On the contrary there are some songs on the album (‘Long Way’, ‘Pest’, ‘About To Fall’) where Speakers Of The Dead don’t sound very inspirational. Luckily enough after these songs another set of great songs come along which gave me a good feeling after listening this record.
Overall I believe that Prey For Murder is a great album if you give it the time to grow. It certainly isn’t the best album ever been made but it sure is an album that’s worth a try. Considering this album is the first full length album of Speakers Of The Dead I give them the benefit of the doubt and I’m curious what I think of their next album.
77/1001Details Magna Carta
Released on Tuesday Apr 18th, 2006
Progressive hardcore
Writer @Niamen on Monday May 29th, 2006
Tags: #Speakers For The Dead
Tracklisting
1. Finally (4:00)
2. Far (5:07)
3. No Wrong (3:15)
4. I\'ve Become (6:09)
5. Long Way (6:31)
6. Pest (4:29)
7. About To Fall (3:16)
8. I Am (2:47)
9. Back Home (2:58)
10. Fade (3:31)
11. Again (3:11)
12. Resignation (8:09)
2. Far (5:07)
3. No Wrong (3:15)
4. I\'ve Become (6:09)
5. Long Way (6:31)
6. Pest (4:29)
7. About To Fall (3:16)
8. I Am (2:47)
9. Back Home (2:58)
10. Fade (3:31)
11. Again (3:11)
12. Resignation (8:09)
Line up
Curtis Shamlin - Vocals
Jason Garcia - Guitar
Rob Slocum - Bass
Gary Shipman - Drums
Jason Garcia - Guitar
Rob Slocum - Bass
Gary Shipman - Drums