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Offline troy211619  
#1 Posted : 07 May 2010 10:58:10(UTC)
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The Teignmouth quintet are back! Reckoner impressed us with their amazing debut album Invisible and now they return with the fresh new sound of their latest album, Backstabber. The album marks the evolution of the band's sound from Invisible's guitar pop mania to a variety of musical genres in the new album including psychedelic rock(Daydream), grunge(Grudge), and metal(Lock N' Load). The album also dives into the darker, deeper side of the band's lyrical themes which include lyrics about prostitution, gun violence, drugs, and more serious issues. Now let me welcome you to the sound of Backstabber.

Planet Xerox, the album's opener is a song about fashion, in a science fiction point of view. "It clearly is a song about fashion and how people love to dress up to the latest trends, then all of a sudden I had this idea of a Utopian society where everybody would start to look alike, just like Xerox copies and that's where the title Planet Xerox came from.." said Troy. This is one of the album's songs pop rock songs and bears a similarity to Invisible's sound. The song starts off with an echoing keyboard note and a slow drum beat followed by all 3 guitars playing a palm muted riff. It is then followed by Troy singing and JPC's bass line. The song's chorus shows Troy's wide vocal range singing in C5 and then dropping to D4 and singing back to C5. The song also includes a reverb-delay solo played by JC. "JC got addicted to the reverb-delay effect since he bought it last month so we thought of having a solo to satisfy his addiction.."

Now another pop-rock song in your way would be the album's title track Backstabber. "The song is about knowing who your real friends are, I mean there were really times when I was backstabbed by my friends and it was a really bad experience for me, so this song is like a way for me to get over those things", Troy said. The song begins with all 3 guitarists playing a D, Cadd9, G chord progression in different styles, Carl and Troy playing it in distortion and JC strumming in tremolo. Troy and Carl share vocal duties in the intro, where they just shout "Hey!" for a few seconds. The first verse features bass, vocals, and drums only with JC and Carl playing some "squealies" to add effect. The chorus features the same musical arrangement in the intro but this time, there are lyrics. The second verse adds palm muted guitars to make the song sound angrier with the chorus being sung in a higher key. A break comes after the chorus with the bass and drum combo playing and Troy singing in a semi-speaking voice. The song ends with an outro where all 3 guitarists play distortion as Troy sings in falsetto.

The next track in the album is the lead single Slow Down. It has to be the poppiest sounding song in the whole album. "The song is a message to fans, not just ours but to all the fans out there of any musician, artist, or celebrity. You can go ask for our autographs, you can have a souvenir or whatsoever, just don't go farther than the limit..", Troy said. The song was written during the Chromosome 13 Tour where Troy was violently jumped on by a fan who wanted his autograph. The song holds the record for fastest recorded song by the band, it was recorded in 3 hours only. The song starts of with an acoustic guitar and Troy's falsetto singing the first verse. The second verse comes in where JC plays harmonics and the drum and bass combo kick in. The chorus gets a bit noisy where both electric guitars play in distortion as Troy sings in a more aggressive way. The song also includes a guitar solo played by Carl after the bridge where Troy screams at the top of his lungs. The solo was written by Carl only 3 days before recording sessions began.

Falling Down was released as the second single off the album. It was the producers' favorite song since it was the only one produced by all 3 of them. "The song is about prostitution as Troy Mascenon stated. "The song was written back in our pre-Invisible days when the band performed in a club beside a strip club. So after the gig in the former, we thought of relaxing in the strip club and it was our first time. When we walked inside, the atmosphere was just awful and uninviting, but we still decided to go on. We only got one girl for the whole band and it was only a dance. As she danced and slowly stripped, I saw the uneasiness in her eyes, she didn't wanna do it. I felt sad for her and gave her a tip before we left the place. It was a conscience shaking experience. I never wanted to go back", said Troy. The song starts with an acoustic guitar chord progression layering weird synthesizer sounds in the background. The song's chorus is only a repeated line after each verse. The second verse now has lightly distorted guitars playing with the bass and drum combo, the "chorus" in this verse is more emotional than the first chorus and now it leads to the final verse where Carl plays in heavy distortion and JC plays with tremolo in distortion. The song cools off in the chorus where only the acoustic guitar and Troy's vocals are heard. The song ends with a falsetto note from Troy.

Blur is the title track from Reckoner's EP of the same name. The song is about a nervous breakdown Troy had while touring. "It happened sometime after the release of Invisible, we became like the next big rock band to hit the music scene, almost everyone wanted a piece of us, but that wasn't what we wanted. All we wanted was to play music but this was just too much.." Troy said. The song is composed of two parts; a slow phaser verse, and a faster distorted chorus. Troy sings in a shifting voice from normal chest voice to falsetto following the riff’s melody. Carl does nothing except play with his new e-bow which he only bought one week prior to recording the EP. The song goes on for two verses until it breaks down to the chorus. The chorus then shifts the song from easy listening to a harder headbanging chorus. The song goes on for another verse and chorus before the outro. The outro’s riff is more of an improvised version of the chorus riff with Troy’s screaming adlibs talking in an almost nonsense language.

Part 2 of the review coming up later


zicon wrote:
So what is Role Play all about, Imagination?


Aj wrote:
I don't dislike pop, I dislike bad music.

Liam


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Offline troy211619  
#2 Posted : 08 May 2010 15:31:08(UTC)
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Now the next song on the album is a really odd one, a metal song called Lock N Load. This song might sound odd at first, but after listening to it for a few more times, it will grow on you. The song’s intro is consisted of continuous strumming of distorted power chords by Carl and Troy followed by JC’s tremolo picking and Tristan’s hi-hat, metronome like sound. The song then explodes with JC’s metal riff, Troy and Carl playing the power chords, JPC playing an extremely complex bassline, and Tristan playing heavily on his drums to the point where it looks like he wants to destroy his own drums. The song’s lyrics are very brutal and talk about man’s abuse of guns and their addiction to violence, the lyrics are quite abstract though, but if thoroughly understood, you can see the sad message inside. The chorus is made up of a crescendo of instruments with Troy’s voice imitating the progression; the chorus ends with Troy singing in a high G5 note scream followed by the intro riff again. The song’s solo is consisted of Troy playing rhythm, JC playing the whammy and Carl playing the distorted guitar; these different riffs, when put together, form one new sounding riff. The song then slows down to the outro where Troy and JC’s distorted guitar have a duet, Troy sings the last few lines of the song, imitating the sound of the bluesy riff JC was currently playing. The song includes three different genres, blues in the outro, metal for the rest, and that alternative rock sound coming from Troy's voice. "Though a metal song, my voice still makes it sound alternative, I can do some screams but it just didn't fit the song right" says Troy. "The lyrics are about a guy who walks in to a club and starts shooting everyone.." says Morrisson, who wrote the lyrics. "The song was a bit influenced by Mind and Blood of Wecz since we joined the battle of the bands, we heard some of their stuff and it was incorporated into this song" says JPC. Well in my opinion, this has got to be one of the band's best songs to date, it completely shows their versatility in music incorporating different styles of music in just one song. Only a few alternative rock bands have the guts and talent to go metal, and Reckoner might just be one of them.

Up next is the post-grunge song, Grudge. The song begins with Troy playing a clean ascending guitar riff. A few seconds more and the rest of the band come in; the most distinct part though is JC and Carl’s heavy distortion. The verse starts with Troy singing in a gentle yet noticeably angry voice and JC playing in clean guitar, the lines in each verse are separated by JC’s guitar fills. The pre-chorus is consisted of a semi-distorted riff imitating Troy’s vocals played by both JC and Carl. It soon breaks down into the chorus where the intro riff is also played. Troy’s voice goes from gentle to rough as it is accompanied by 3 heavy distorted guitars. The song goes on for another verse and chorus before going into the solo. The solo is still consisted of the 3 guitars but with altering effects. The bridge connecting the chorus to the solo is made up of heavy distortion; it is then followed by a clean guitar riff played by Troy. It is connected back to the chorus by another heavily distorted riff; the chorus riff has minor alterations for the third time it is played though. The song’s outro is made up of a clean guitar riff, and a heavy distorted riff imitating the former followed by seconds of improvised solos and notes. The song ends suddenly like it was cut off. "The song has got to be the hardest song we have ever written, so many chords, so many solos." says Troy. "This was the same song we played in the IMAs, it was then Untitled but now we came up with the name Grudge since it sounded like grunge." says Carl. In my opinion, this song is genius. I mean the solo was a really creative part of the song and it really shows JC's genius with his guitar. Troy's vocals also play a great role in this song because of his soulfulness in singing, shifting into different types of singing in each part of the song. This song needs to be released as the next single!

Almost every album has a downer, and that's what Brittlebone is. It talks about Troy' s over consciousness with his health with lyrics that almost keep repeating itself. The melody is very simple and gets boring at a point. I love this band but I just really hate the song, it should have been made into a b-side instead. The song only consists of a 4-chord progression, drums, a bass that follows the progression and Troy singing, that's it. I'm really sorry guys but this isn't that great of a song.

With that very negative review of Brittlebone, up next is a very postitive review for Daydream. "It's a very druggy song, written in our normal minds, but recorded drunk." said Troy about the recording sessions. Daydream is a psychedelic song with dominant whammy pedals and JPC’s first song playing the slap bass technique. The song starts of with JC who plays the lead whammy, and Troy who plays a few notes on clean guitar. The whole band then comes in with Carl’s slightly distorted guitar, JPC’s slap bass, and Tristan’s snare and hi-hat combo. The chorus is consisted of a different chord progression for Carl and even more complicated riffs from JC. After another verse and another chorus, the solo then comes in. The solo is played by JC’s whammy guitar as Carl plays the intro chord progression and Troy just played with his guitar’s delay. The song ends with another whammy riff by JC followed by a loud applause from the audience. "The song psychedelic trip to wonderland with meaningless lyrics, groovy beats, and Carl's crazy back up vocals which use this ghostly effect echoing through the air." describes Tristan. The song would get a positive remark from me, it was pretty experimetnal and as I said, this band is very brave in trying out new stuff. Kudos!

It was fun reviewing the album, but now we are now ending it with the final track, Blackout. "The song's title explains the whole song itself, a lonely tunnel with no light at the end. It's about losing everything you have and fading away without a trace" says Troy. The song begins with clean arpeggios played by Troy, followed by lead guitars played by JC and Carl. Troy then sings in a haunting voice which consistently slides up to falsetto and back to his modal voice. The strings then come in accompanying the lead guitar riff as Troy sings the chorus. Tristan stars hitting his hi-hat as the second verse comes in. The whole band come in for the second chorus with more strings coming in. The outro is consisted of Troy's falsetto and the strings all alone with everything else, fading away. This is a great album closer, period. It perfectly ends the whole journey of the album and I consider this a great track. It was all haunting yet beautiful, something unique from the bip-bop pop we hear these days, Reckoner have just proven themselves worthy of being called musicians..

OVERALL:
Now the final judgement comes... After reviewing the whole album, I have come up with a conclusion, it is genius! All tracks except Brittlebone have proven this album great, showing the versatility of Mr. Mascenon and the band's songwriting. It is a very unique sounding album and deserves whatever praise it gets from the other reviews it will have. The album gets 4.7 stars out of 5. Congratulations to Reckoner!
Christopher De Leon(NME)

(OOC: Worked my ass off this review, comments please!)
zicon wrote:
So what is Role Play all about, Imagination?


Aj wrote:
I don't dislike pop, I dislike bad music.

Liam


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Offline Paradox  
#3 Posted : 08 May 2010 23:54:48(UTC)
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Amazing album, though I wouldnt like being tagged as post-grunge.
-Hector
RP bands:
Insolent Paradox - Progressive [Forum Thread] - Post-production
Oceans - Fusion Jazz - Writing

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I'm failing? I'm failing??????? LMAO!!!!!!



Mod Edit - you failed...


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Offline troy211619  
#4 Posted : 09 May 2010 10:10:45(UTC)
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Thanks man, though post-grunge is just a genre in this album, we stay alternative rock..
-Troy Mascenon

OOC:Thanks for commenting though!
zicon wrote:
So what is Role Play all about, Imagination?


Aj wrote:
I don't dislike pop, I dislike bad music.

Liam


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Offline infinite135  
#5 Posted : 09 May 2010 14:04:24(UTC)
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Eric: This album is amazing! I'm a huge fan of your music, so I've been looking forward to this album for ages!
Kid Anything- Indie/Britpop/Shoegaze; influenced by Sigur Ros, XXYYXX, Kanye West, Blur, Oasis

(Bringing together an eclectic group of influences, Ulysses' songs are sung with carefree abandon by Nick Junk)

Kurt Ulysses - Songwriter, Guitarist, Backup Vocalist
Nick Junk - Vocals, Mojo



Infinite- Alternative/Experimental Rock; influenced by Muse, Radiohead, and The Beatles

(Known best for their experimental music and their frontman's eccentric behavior, the band disbanded after Eric Quillington's death to pursue solo careers or, in Matt Robert's case, peace of mind. Infinite released four albums over the course of their career; Blue Nebula, Midnight Skies, Insomnia, and Dancing about Architecture.)

Eric Quillington (Deceased) - Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar, Piano, Primary Lyricist
Matt Roberts - Bass
Greg Oldson - Drums, Backup Vocals, Secondary Lyricist
Amelia Florentine - Keyboards, Piano, Lyricist, Backup Vocals

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"When asked 'how do you write?' I invariably answer, 'one word at a time', and this answer is invariably dismissed. But that's all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will: one stone at a time, man. That's all. One stone at a time. But I've read you can see that motherfucker from space without a telescope."

- Stephen King
Offline troy211619  
#6 Posted : 10 May 2010 01:35:01(UTC)
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Thanks Eric, want a free copy?
-Troy Mascenon
zicon wrote:
So what is Role Play all about, Imagination?


Aj wrote:
I don't dislike pop, I dislike bad music.

Liam


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Offline Regan  
#7 Posted : 10 May 2010 14:32:16(UTC)
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After listening to the takes in the studio I knew this album was going to turn out fantastic! Before we even entered the studio I felt success written all over it. Good job guys!
-Regan Futrell
thecerebral_collection:
quarantine | thewaitingroom | bunker18
Offline troy211619  
#8 Posted : 10 May 2010 14:42:33(UTC)
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Regan wrote:
After listening to the takes in the studio I knew this album was going to turn out fantastic! Before we even entered the studio I felt success written all over it. Good job guys!
-Regan Futrell

Wow! I feel complete..
-Troy Mascenon
zicon wrote:
So what is Role Play all about, Imagination?


Aj wrote:
I don't dislike pop, I dislike bad music.

Liam


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Offline Laurelles1  
#9 Posted : 11 May 2010 02:11:19(UTC)
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Aaron: It was always going to be hard to match Invinsible, but this has totally surpassed my expectations. Reckoner are one of the best bands in the industry at the moment, and this just strengthens it. Absolutely amazing album, well done!
Awards (stroking myself and thinking I'm superior):
@Chaos awards:
Best Band - Mind
Best Album - Shattered Fairytale by Mind
Technical Ecstasy - Jason Smith (x3)
Best Solo Male - Jason Smith
Birdies:
Best Producer - Jason Smith

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Offline troy211619  
#10 Posted : 11 May 2010 02:40:13(UTC)
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Laurelles1 wrote:
Aaron: It was always going to be hard to match Invinsible, but this has totally surpassed my expectations. Reckoner are one of the best bands in the industry at the moment, and this just strengthens it. Absolutely amazing album, well done!

Thanks Aaron, and I'm glad you like the album since you'd be playing those songs in our tour!
-Troy Mascenon
zicon wrote:
So what is Role Play all about, Imagination?


Aj wrote:
I don't dislike pop, I dislike bad music.

Liam


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Offline PANIC!  
#11 Posted : 11 May 2010 08:11:19(UTC)
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"I just feel that I should clarify something that should be pretty clear, that I produced they more softer, or better said alternative rock songs on the record. Since I have absolutely no knowledge at all of metal music. Reckoner seems to be the next big thing, band wise, in music. They got a good balance of music which allows them to attract various listeners, which is the one thing I advise every band coming up in the scene. The sophomore album of a band that has a big debut is huge, because their second album is what defines whether or not that artist/band was a one-hit wonder never to be heard again, or they could actually have something good going there. I believe that Reckoner is the latter of the two, and I'm not just saying that because I produce some of it, because anyone that knows me knows I dislike metal. I predict that Reckoner is gonna be around for a while."

--.` Ryan Ross Hernandez.
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Offline troy211619  
#12 Posted : 11 May 2010 11:44:22(UTC)
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Thank you Mr. Hernandez! We really are happy to have worked with you and we look forward to still be working with you in the future..
-Troy Mascenon
zicon wrote:
So what is Role Play all about, Imagination?


Aj wrote:
I don't dislike pop, I dislike bad music.

Liam


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