It’s hard at times to tell whether ‘Test Switch Isolator’ are serious about what they do or whether they are a self aware parody of the Metal/Hardcore genre. Due to the general intelligence of the bands music and their impressive beatdowns, I’d tend to go with the idea that the band are serious, however it’s always a niggling thought that they may not be.
The bands screaming/growling is at times, in my opinion laughable, however when the band aren’t doing this they are actually quite enjoyable and really show that they do in fact have talent and aren’t just good at straining their throats and damaging their vocal cords. There is a good display of double bass pedal drumming on display on this CD and a fine show of guitar work. This band obviously has a fair amount of talent and can write good songs, however a lot of the time they just don’t seem to be trying. There are some jazzy tracks such as ‘This Rat Spawn Went to Market’ showing that the band can write some genuinely interesting and entertaining songs without having to scream and shout. These moments on the album have a real Head Automatica vibe about them, and this happens to be a band that I love. It is hard to even grasp the concept that it’s even the same band that has just been assaulting your ears by barking at you in previous tracks.
Having looked at the cover, I was expecting to dislike this album for being too Emo, however having listened to it I can reveal that I disliked a lot of it for being growly nonsense. When the band aren’t doing this they are a pretty good band, however more often than not they choose to annoy you with their screaming, and it just didn’t impress me. Some Metal/Hardcore is genuinely quite entertaining when the bands are just screaming down the microphones, however a lot of the time Test Switch Isolator just sound like they’re screaming for screamings sake and there appears to be no method to it other than to growl and hope for the best. There are some genuine fine moments of Metal however, don’t get me wrong – I just think that the needless growling ruins the record a bit.
Released: 29th August 2005
Label: Casket Music
Rating:
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
