Unjust

Glow (2004)

Jesse Raub

I'm sorry. I just can't take this band seriously. First off, their band name couldn't be more nü-metal cliché. Unjust? What's unjust? Way to be vague and uninteresting. Are they aware that their new album shares it's title with J.Lo's brand of perfume? Tsk, tsk, gentlemen. Not a good P.R. move (not to mention the terrible picture of the band looking "moody" on thre press release sheet).

This band sounds like Nickelback trying to sound like Thursday. Really. It's that bad. The first track is a slow number, featuring horrible sounding keyboards over a terribly written guitar solo line. Terrible. Sounds like a freakin' 80s power ballad. Good thing it's only 51 seconds. Oww. I'm listening to it right now, and my ears actually hurt. The next song features crap with more crap and other crap. Same with the rest of the album. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to send this CD to punknews?

Here is what's wrong with this album. The vocals are pushed to display "emotion." The singer uses lyrics like "disposable feelings, all is gone, only fire." The drums are over-produced so as every snare hit reminds you of a shitty stadium P.A. The guitars play no interesting chords or riffs. The bass just mimics the guitars and doesn't do anything else. If you've read my reviews before, you know I'm critical of bass lines. This band has none. My favorite part of this CD is the cheesey sounding keyboard playing fake string lines as if we were either A) supposed to believe that it's a real orchestra (Metallica S&M to the max!) or B) think that they sound "cool." They accomplish neither with this keyboard.

Just so you understand the torture I went through, here's a listing of the tracks on this album:
1. Paper Planets (wtf?)
2. Throwin' Pennies (see also: Live-Throwing Copper)
3. Way Out (finding a way out? way out like far away?)
4. Tired (yeah, I'm tired of this band. ZING!)
5. Facepaint (glad they're appealing to kiddies)
6. Falling (isn't this the title of a Linkin Park song?)
7. Meantime (probably in reference to the time I spent being mean to them in this review)
8. Closure (I'm going to need some after this review)
9. Knuckles (not even going to touch this one; bad enough in itself)
10. Naming the Monster (one-eyed monster? sorry, couldn't resist)
11. Notes From a Sunday Morning (holy multiple word title Batman! they switched it up on me with this one…)
12. Capital (What is Washington D.C.? I'll take bad song titles for $200 Alex.)
13. Myron (again, wtf?)
14. Rooms (mush)

So there you have it. None of these tracks spark any sort of interest for me. If they do it for you, then you have a horrible taste in music. That's right, your opinion would be wrong. Don't argue with me about that. There are just some bands that will make your opinion wrong if you listen to them. However, I am giving them a 2, just because they're not riding the pop-punk craze.