Last Perfection

Drawing Conclusions (2004)

Jordan Rogowski

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect when I popped this into my computer's CD drive. The name of the band and album really didn't lead me to any particular assumptions, and I'd never heard of the band name or even their label for that matter. I also decided not to look at the lyrics before listening, as I have a
tendency to do, because lyrics have always been a really important facet of music for me. So this music starts, and what do I get? Chugga chugga, double bass, chugga. Awesome, metalcore. Every night before I go to sleep, I pray for more metalcore, and finally, my prayers are answered.

Last Perfection's Drawing Conclusions starts out with its default chugga chugga, double bass, chugga chugga, double bass formula on the opening track "The Inception;" yeah, the inception of the headache that I'm positive I'll have through the duration of this album. Where along the lines did every band not in the mainstream just have a meeting and decide, "here's the chords we'll use, throw in some heavy double bass drumming, and the breakdowns will come here, here, and here." I don't get it. This formula doesn't change through any of the songs; you have your slow, chugging guitars, breakdown, then the double bass kicks in and once in a while the guitarists will play with some speed, but even then
it feels contrived, and just put in to falsify their claim that musically they do something different than the million other bands playing with power chords and growled vocals.

I'm not even sure when one song ends and the other begins. The only intro that sounds different is the last song, the token acoustic to close out the album, "The Number 5 Looks Like 2." They couldn't even make it look like they weren't ripping off the Number Twelve Looks Like You. It's not even a good track, it sounds horribly disjointed, like an 8-year-old is plucking his first few strings learning how to play, and there's some snare and symbol crashing in the background.

To their credit though, these guys know how to match. What would generic music be without the vocals and lyrics to back it up? I don't know if they have two vocalists, or one just manipulating his voice, but they definitely went the wrong direction there. You have the menacing scowl of the lead singer, where every word sounds absolutely identical, but every so often there's some screamy parts thrown in, reminiscent of 7 Angels 7 Plagues' "Dandelions." The bad growling though is definitely at the forefront, and is definitely the voice they want projected most. But wait, wait just a minute, you have to have the music die down every so often for some spoken word parts. "Everyone Is A Poet" breaks away momentarily
for one of the singers to say "And you'll swallow it whole." It then proceeds to go into some showoff guitar work. Way to be unnecessary. If you guys didn't fall into the pit of clichés before, that sealed the deal. And to further bury you into that pit are the band's lyrics.

Like I said before, lyrics are a definite point of attention for me. I realize not every band is going to have a strong writer, and not every band is going to be able to pen beautiful lyrics, but some of the stuff that bands today are trying to pass off is not excusable in any right, especially since most of these bands are trying to be poetic and deep but fall flat on their faces. If you don't have the writing talent to actually be poetic, just write what you know; at least in that instance you won't come off trying to sound fake, as happens here in every single song. In "What A Pity," these guys show just what kind of writers they truly are;

Gagged and bound, broken blood mess / Laugh and point, the angels pissed on you / Drown them in the lifetime of tears you were forced to shed / … / Take my hand and pull the chord, take my hand and tie the knot / Take my hand and tip the chair, take my hand and wave goodbye.

That's about all I could take with the lyrics. And about all I could take with the guitars, drumming, bass, and vocals for that matter. It's all wrapped up in one horrible, clichéd, overdone, retread package that I'm sure Poison The Well fans everywhere will eat right up. I wish I could even say "can't fault a band for trying," but I so easily can here, because there's no effort put in here at all. These guys have just jumped onto the edge of the pile on the metalcore bandwagon, and plan on milking it for all they can. Well, I for one am not going to help them along. Keep. Away. At. All. Costs.