| Reviewed
by: Darklight
The
Razor Skyline is The_Gun, Karen Kardell and Onyx. What they
deliver on this CD is a blend of guitar heavy gothic rock and electronic
focused darkwave.
The CD kicks off a little more hard and heavy than I would like with
the aggressive "American Tragedy". It's basically a rock song
with guitars taking over. Track two "Corporation" slows things
down a bit with more of a melodic darkwave vibe. It's mainly an electro/synth
track with sampling and slight guitar. Track three "After The Flood"
continues with a similar darkwave style. It has great programming, beats,
dark orchestrated melodies and superb singing by Karen Kardell. There's
guitar in the song as well that sounds a little out of place. Track
four "Rebellion Lost" brings back the heaviness again with
a harder sound and louder energy. There's just something about it that
I don't find appealing. Track five "Run" is basically a guitar
rock instrumental with words provided by The_Gun. It sounds completely
out of place for The Razor Skyline, and this CD in
general. It's definitely a track I skip. Track six "Dream"
is a pop song that actually suits this band well. It works because it's
upbeat mainly created with electronics and Karen sings cute on it. Track
seven "When I Knew Everything" goes back to a darkwave sound
with mid-tempo beats and dark soundscapes. Track eight "King Street"
is a great gothic song with acoustic guitar, catchy beats and haunting
melodies. It's one of the more energetic tracks on this CD that works
extremely well. Track nine "Cast" is another typical sounding
song here without a lot about it that allows it to stand out. It's good,
but nothing different. Track ten "Freak" is a nicely polished
emotional song with good structure and development. It's one of the
more mature songs here, and ends the album well.
This CD is a mixed bag. It has really great songs such as "Corporation",
"After The Flood", "Dream", "King Street"
and "Freak". It has average songs such as "Rebellion Lost",
"When I Knew Everything" and "Cast". And it has generic
heavy rock songs such as "American Tragedy" and "Run".
Since the electronic programming, synths and sampling are so great in
these songs, I would like to this band embrace these elements even more
in the future. I personally think that EBM, synth-pop and darkwave music
is what would suit them best. The heavy guitars really sound overpowering
and out of place in their music.
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| Reviewed
by: Darklight
This
is a very solid and well structured goth CD. Right from the instant
it kicks off, you're hooked. The music draws you in and makes you want
to keep listening. It's a mixture of EBM, goth and rock. It blends excellent
electronic programming and sampling with driving drum beats and heavy
guitar. Karen Kardell has an amazing voice, and manages to deliver some
of the best vocal work I have ever heard before. She has a wide range
to her singing style, and carries a tune beautifully. Every unique element
included here fits together perfectly. This album is very clean and
polished with an extremely high quality to it. Each of the ten songs
sound different from one another, and include a lot of variety. You
get a good blend of electro, goth and rock elements all combined into
one to deliver energetic tracks with emotion. There's a lot of passion
and feeling in these songs that make them enjoyable to listen to. While
most goth bands flood their albums with a lot of slow and moody music,
The Razor Skyline tend to keep everything moving and energetic. The
only thing that would make them even better in my opinion is if they
went more electronic and less rock. While I like how they manage to
mix different genres together, I do feel that the electronics get pushed
back a little too much in favor of the guitars. But that's a minor gripe.
If you're a fan of goth bands such as Collide, London After Midnight,
Nosferatu and Rosetta Stone, you will definitely like what The Razor
Skyline has to offer.
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| Reviewed
by: Darklight
This
goth rock band has more of an old school sound to it as opposed to a
newer sound. But there are electronic rhythms and beats that give their
sound a slight touch of industrial as well. Most of the songs here are
medium to fast paced energetic catchy goth music with sampled guitars,
drum machines, electronics, and haunting synths all overlayed by a female
singer that sings melodic as well as hyper and comical at times. She
gives the songs personality with her diverse singing styles. Some songs
are upbeat and fast paced for the dance floor, while others are more
melodic, moody, and romantic. So there is variety to be found here.
But not a whole lot. All of the upbeat songs sound like each other,
just as all of the melodic songs sound like each other. There really
isn't anything new to be found here. This is pretty straight forward
goth rock music for the most part. I think that greater industrial influences
and more changes in the songs would have helped give this album more
of an edge. As it is now it's fairly generic.
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