Rocky Denis

Item: The Difference Between A Blade And A Pill
Rating: 1
Author: Jesse Raub

The Difference Between A Blade And A Pill (2004)

Jesse Raub

These guys violated rule #1: using the right "you're" or "your." They even use it in a song title. "Now Your Dead." What about my dead? There were a lot of typos in the press sheet too. Like how they lost a guitarist to the "collage monster." So that's a few strikes against them. I demand a certain level of inherent intelligence out of anyone that tries to talk to me, and me listening to your band or reading something you wrote is inherently you talking to me. So already I'm wary of this CD.

Upon listening to it, I'm confronted with very formulaic "dark" melodic hardcore. There is not an ounce of creative talent in this band. The melodies and the high-pitched pretty-boy singing and the screaming choruses, and the trite breakdowns that I've heard a million times before. The palm-muted verse riffs that are, when I think about it, lifted from songs like "Third Engine" from Saves the Day's Through Being Cool. In fact, the whole thing seems like someone listened to that album way too much and tried to make it "harder." I'm not buying it.

The lyrics have the most generic "dark" imagery that I've ever read; "Drinking keeps my mind off. Phone rings explodes through silence. You tell me that you leaving. I swear to god I'm dreaming." I swear to God that this band needs to obey basic grammar rules… "I'm killing you, you murder me. Blackened eyes and shattered teeth control the way we all shall think." Yeah, yeah. Death and destruction. Ooh, spooky.

Musically, the band seems competent enough. I've gotten a slew of bands that weren't even good enough to play on time on their records, and this band seems tight even if it's on record. Or maybe because it's the fact that all their "cool metal riffs" are extremely easy and pale in comparison to actual bands.

I think the real difference between a blade and a pill is that one is made out of metal, and the other is medicine. Yup, I could've answered that one for you. You didn't have to make an EP to explain this fact.