Onesidezero - Onesidezero
Rating
RIYL
30 Seconds to MarsChevelle
10 Years
The Butterfly Effect
Tracklist
1. Carry Your Gun2. Breath
3. Whatever Happened To...
4. Levitation
5. My Confessions
6. Sleep
7. Stay
8. Blondevil
9. Who Will Stop the Rain?
10. Safely Forgotten
11. Cardboard Cutouts
12. Carry Us Away
13. Trickassho
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Onesidezero’s street team press release states that the band’s six-year-old debut is “critically acclaimed.” Talk about a total exaggeration. At absolute best, Is This Room Getting Smaller was just your typical, standard issue alternative metal barely distinguishable from the rest of the quasi “nu” pack that was floating around at the time. Aside from a pedestrian attempt at progressive musical passages, coupled with a contribution to the movement that diluted the Maynard James Keenan vocal technique, their music pretty much mirrored other discount bin bedfellows such as Downer, From Zero, and Earshot. The effort wasn’t terrible, but far from being anything to write home about.
But alas, it’s a new day. And as true to the cycles of pop-culture as always, the landscape of rock music changed in the band’s long absence. Link that fact with the impression of obvious inspirers Tool sucking more and more with each new album, releasing another faceless leecher record was probably not in the best interest of Onesidezero’s paychecks. The group'sanswer to a much-needed progression comes in the form of a self-titled straightforward assault of angst-driven classic rock. However, the real question is if theseguys areshowcasing a true maturity that their press kit also promises. Unlike their previous effort, is the new album offering any new ideas? No. Bummer. Is the album even any good? Yes. Yay!
Even though the band’s habit of completely strip-mining more established artists hasn’t changed much from prior days, a considerable amount of what this montage release offers is still worth a damn. What’s immediately notable is singer Jasan Radford’s departure from the Pro-Wings version of Keenan’s pipes and adopting a varied range comparable to so many artists of past and present. One minute you’ll think of a non-crappy, pre-studio version of Jared Leto, and next you’ll even be considering an unexpected such a Dave Mustaine. Fundamental and never overproduced, his voice has become an excellent example of a sum of all its parts.
Musically, the rest of the crew has gone through a similar makeover as Radford, offering up several well-placed face melters in the midst driving power chords etched slightly with punk pacing. Leading tracks such as “My Confession” and “Carry Your Gun” certainly get the job done quite well. If they had left “Safely Forgotten” in the oven just a little longer they could have had something brilliant. Overall, the results of these singles and potential singles compare to Velvet Revolver’s Contraband mixed with Trivium’s The Crusade and The Panic Channel’s (One) -- only with all the lameness of those three albums removed. For fans of Chevelle, this composition also offers a range that was non-existent on the band’s recent Vena Sera.
With that said, the only blaring disappointment of Onesidezero’s chameleon ways is that they couldn’t hold what they do well to any real amount of consistency -- the same problem that plagued their last album. For instance, ballads such as “Levitation” and “Who Will Stop the Rain” are as convoluted as they are ultra cheesy. It may seem strange to call such simple girl-pleasing tunes confusing, but they sound like they have no idea what kind of croon they want to be. “Levitation” first teases at being an emo version of Staind’s already overly sappy “Home,” but the bridging 90’s-primed guitar balladry just turns this already bad idea for an experiment into an even greater disastrous result. “Who Will Stop the Rain” is just bland baked beans of the post-grunge influence until it reaches this weird, annoyingly shrilly falsetto accompaniment that feebly tries to reinvent Guns N’ Roses’ glory days or other hair bands of the generation.
None of this should come as a surprise since the borrowing of so many ideas usually leads to a faltering identity. Still, for the most part the band manages to wear all of its different colors with a mildly convincing anger and without too much clashing. Even though this effort lacks the level of songwriting that will get more mature listeners to bite, Onesidezero’s new groove effectively plays out like the soundtrack for adolescents that missed their calling to define their personalities at Hot Topic. One could consider the band’s decision to go classic hard rock a smart play for success. They may ultimately fall into the same category as other radio rock, but few dare to take it old school the way they do and make it work properly in the same verse.
--MJ Austin
Comments
Minnesota
Find me EVERYWHERE:
Dallas, Texas
Not to be a jerk, but this CD will be in the below $2.99 bin in about 6 months.
Cincinnati
I loved their first cd back in the day
I would buy it if it were in the 2.99 bin....
Florida, USA
This record is a pile of shit.
Sacramento, CA
but i am reminded of going to their message board and reading a review where the reviewer pretended he had sixty seconds to think of a more generic band that onesidezero and he couldn't do it and ended up dead. i laughed, even though i disagreed.
I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.
Florida, USA
PA
Music Blog.
Depths blog. (my band)
Green Brook, NJ
Sacramento, CA
come on, tim, from zero has ALWAYS been unlistenable.
oh, and while we're making confessions, when i saw dredg on tour with taproot and deadsy back in 02, they had just lined up their tour with onesidezero earlier that day, so i was one of the first to know about that tour. anyway, i'd never heard osz at the time, then i went home and bought the album and i thought to myself, "yes, this is probably the only band who could really FIT with dredg on a tour."
true story.
I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.
What they created and put on disc was yes indeed a bit surprising; in a good way. Onesidezero was known in my head as this alternate take on mellow yet emotional bass driven "tool" but with a different touch.
I don't know if you guys have listened to the band that Jason and Levon went and did when Onesidezero originally broke up; Abloom. Abloom is stunning in every word; I love creative music and things that come at you with such complexity. When listening to the new Onesidezero record; its as if they have matured and they took what they where doing in Abloom; at least some of it.. And added what was already the original sound and altered it..
We are in a time of change..bands and sounds and interest go with whatever the world is being reflected upon.
Loved Onesidezero since 2001; and by no means does this record disappoint..
What he does on Safely Forgotten is simply heart drenching. The sound they create while Stay is played as Jason sings the lyrics as if they are poetry speaking to you directly is mind blowing. Flow with the music and the lyrics as he speaks them. Jason seams to love telling stories within his songs; just go with the flow and its a beautiful trip.
By far better than any of that (most of) junk they do play on mainstream radio.
take care :)
Dallas, Texas
"Even though this effort lacks the level of songwriting that will get more mature listeners to bite, Onesidezero’s new groove effectively plays out like the soundtrack for adolescents that missed their calling to define their personalities at Hot Topic."
To reiterate myself... most of decoy's older, more mature readers have long since moved on from this style as evidenced in the comments. And the second part of my comment is me being optimistic, as most of our younger readers are into stuff like Panic! at the Disco, Circa Survive and Paramore and wouldn’t give this record or the prior more than 30 seconds of listening.
So looking at it no so optimistically, Onesidezero may have well shot themselves in the foot no matter what.
None of the comments here suprised me. As I knew our readers would most likely HATE this album. Regardless, I did my best to put this album over. Because it is decent. A lot better than much non-scene radio rock.
Anyhow, I hope this isn’t a one-time post for you, stranger. Hope to see you around.
Cincinnati
Boring.