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Music Review: XP8- Drop the Mask
15 years ago
Tracklist:
1. Blind
2. Want It
3. One True God
4. One Pill Missing
5. Breathe The Poison In
6. Awake, Restart
7. Born Dead (feat. Faderhead)
8. Out Of Control
9. Drop The Mask
10. Scorpio Eyes
11. Out For Blood (feat. Fetish Dolly)
12. Bad Guys
13. Our Time (pt.II)
I tend to review only albums and EPs that I like, so I figured it's time to change that. But first, a little personal background.
I first learned about the Italian XP8 3 or 4 years ago, but they never really caught my eye. Only during VNV Nation's US leg of their Judgment tour when vocalist, Marco Visconti, joined the band as a live synth player was I reminded about XP8's existence. Recently they released their fourth studio album "Drop the Mask" so I've finally decided to give XP8 a try.
Unfortunately, the good things I heard about the band didn't show to me on this album. The music itself is great and meshes well. My biggest problem was with the vocals. Where they were supposed to be sunk in the mix, they were buried too buried. On the tracks where the vocals were processed, the processing seemed shoddy. The only track I actually enjoyed the vocals was "One True God", the third track on that album. After that, I typically found myself thinking 'this would have been a great instrumental track.' The only other exceptions to this was the band's collaboration with Faderhead and Fetish Dolly. But when your better tracks are collaborations with other bands, there's an issue.
The first two tracks, 'Blind' and 'Want It' are in my mind the worst tracks on the album and leave a bad taste in your mouth. Granted, it picks up with the third track, but the vocals remain the downer of the album. I like the fact that they tried to play around a bit with clean and processed vocals, and I love it when bands experiment with their music a bit, but with 'Drop the Mask' it feels half-hearted.
Overall I would say this album is a victim of mastering that doesn't fit the band's formula. For a work that's received a positive reception, to me it feels very mediocre. I hate to say that as I am a HUGE fan of Industrial music and I'm easy to please in that respect, but this is just what I'm seeing. Visconti doesn't seem to know how to properly use his vocals for the band's music (which I must stress, the instrumentals are not unenjoyable). Perhaps if XP8 were a Synthpop band and not an EBM band and only used clean vocals, I would be able to enjoy listening to them a lot more.
This is not an album I would recommend buying, and I give it a 5 out of 10. It would have been closer to a 6, but the fact that out of only 3 tracks I liked completely, 2 of them were collaborations with other bands and that in itself is a minus. That, and I had to force myself to keep listening after track 8, I was becoming so bored with it. I was wondering why I never heard much from Industrial fans (excluding professional reviewers) about this band, but now I think I know why. Sorry, XP8, but I have to give "Drop the Mask" a thumbs down.
1. Blind
2. Want It
3. One True God
4. One Pill Missing
5. Breathe The Poison In
6. Awake, Restart
7. Born Dead (feat. Faderhead)
8. Out Of Control
9. Drop The Mask
10. Scorpio Eyes
11. Out For Blood (feat. Fetish Dolly)
12. Bad Guys
13. Our Time (pt.II)
I tend to review only albums and EPs that I like, so I figured it's time to change that. But first, a little personal background.
I first learned about the Italian XP8 3 or 4 years ago, but they never really caught my eye. Only during VNV Nation's US leg of their Judgment tour when vocalist, Marco Visconti, joined the band as a live synth player was I reminded about XP8's existence. Recently they released their fourth studio album "Drop the Mask" so I've finally decided to give XP8 a try.
Unfortunately, the good things I heard about the band didn't show to me on this album. The music itself is great and meshes well. My biggest problem was with the vocals. Where they were supposed to be sunk in the mix, they were buried too buried. On the tracks where the vocals were processed, the processing seemed shoddy. The only track I actually enjoyed the vocals was "One True God", the third track on that album. After that, I typically found myself thinking 'this would have been a great instrumental track.' The only other exceptions to this was the band's collaboration with Faderhead and Fetish Dolly. But when your better tracks are collaborations with other bands, there's an issue.
The first two tracks, 'Blind' and 'Want It' are in my mind the worst tracks on the album and leave a bad taste in your mouth. Granted, it picks up with the third track, but the vocals remain the downer of the album. I like the fact that they tried to play around a bit with clean and processed vocals, and I love it when bands experiment with their music a bit, but with 'Drop the Mask' it feels half-hearted.
Overall I would say this album is a victim of mastering that doesn't fit the band's formula. For a work that's received a positive reception, to me it feels very mediocre. I hate to say that as I am a HUGE fan of Industrial music and I'm easy to please in that respect, but this is just what I'm seeing. Visconti doesn't seem to know how to properly use his vocals for the band's music (which I must stress, the instrumentals are not unenjoyable). Perhaps if XP8 were a Synthpop band and not an EBM band and only used clean vocals, I would be able to enjoy listening to them a lot more.
This is not an album I would recommend buying, and I give it a 5 out of 10. It would have been closer to a 6, but the fact that out of only 3 tracks I liked completely, 2 of them were collaborations with other bands and that in itself is a minus. That, and I had to force myself to keep listening after track 8, I was becoming so bored with it. I was wondering why I never heard much from Industrial fans (excluding professional reviewers) about this band, but now I think I know why. Sorry, XP8, but I have to give "Drop the Mask" a thumbs down.
