::@:: Reality of Dreams ::@::

What can I say about this album, if you have ever heard and liked System of a Down then you’ll both love and be annoyed by this album. You love it for it encapsulates System’s sound and feeling. While BYOB is the most stand out single track the others give opportunity to consider and dwell on their meaning. However, at just about 30mins long it is not long enough, you almost feel cheated, although it turns out that this is actually CD 1 in a two part set (the second part Hypnotize, is out end of 2005). Of course this album carries a Parental Advisory and for good reason a number of the songs are, well, explicit. It doesn’t bother me but I know that some people get touchy about it.

The songs all have their own unique feeling and tone, particularly the final song “Lost in Hollywood” which is the most mellow I have heard System in a while. System has always been political and biting about the state of our world and the policies in it, this album is no exception with some brutally frank lyrics about war, sex, pornography, fame and every stop in between.

In short, buy this album. It may be too short but it is well worth every minute and it has lots of repeatability in it.

Its review time, at last, time to take a look at my latest CD of choice. Oh and while I remember I am trying to become an Amazon affiliate. Why would I do this? Simply because I thought I’d see how it works and if it is worth the hassle, of getting it set up, approved having to use special links and the like. I know its very commercial and that does grate with me slightly but I can only wait and see how it goes.

Norma Jean have been around for a few years of the Hardcore Metal scene and have generally been well received and liked by many in this field. Most hardcore metal is very fast, very loud and very angry sounding. The only other Norma Jean album I own, Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child, is no exception to this rule (along with the others of this genre I own – which remind must review The Chariot’s album). “O God, The Aftermath” is different, there is more emotional layers than I have felt on any similar album. There is one song, “Disconnecktie (The Faithful Vampire)”, which throws images of a man sitting on the edge of his bed in a one room dingy flat. His head in his hands crying out, “Why am I here? Why me?” There is agony, loneliness, bitterness, pain, longing and many more emotions covered through this rich tapestry of audio silhouetted splendour.

However rich this tapestry with its myriad of subtle hues, complex patterns and fine workmanship there is still something lacking, something that stops it creeping for excellent to excellence. I don’t feel the passion is there in this, it might just be because of these subtle emotional difference in the music, or the fact it is a studio album and when its performed live the passion may cut through any misconceptions like a heated katana blade through chilled butter… but this is not live, this is music for listening to at home, or with friends and it may just be me but at times there is not enough passion… perhaps the music is doing its job and reflecting the inner soul of the listener and it is not the music’s passion but rather the listeners that is being picked up…?

At any rate this is an excellent album from what I think is one of the best hardcore bands out there at the moment. This album is a must for all fans of this genre and give it the time not just to listening to it, rather time to hear it, feeling its peaks and valleys. This is a rare compliment to a hardcore album I feel that it manages to produces more than just one emotion with out shoving in the obligatory “quiet track”. Any misgivings that I may have, do however fade away when I hear the brutal pain and longing in Disconnecktie, music to move and challenge even the hardest metalhead.