Woe, Is Me – Genesi[s]
Record Label: Rise / Velocity
Release Date: November 20, 2012
Before I rampage through the harshest adjectives I can conjure, you should know that I liked Woe, Is Me. Number[s] shamelessly pandered to Hot Topicians, but was a concise, well-constructed debut, regularly earning spins as my guilty pleasure of choice. Even when Tyler Carter jumped ship, I championed Hance Alligood's addition and enjoyed "#Vengeance," believing we'd watch a new star take over the scene.
Now excuse me while I LOL at Genesi[s]. Any semblance of talent and strategy has been tossed, resulting in 30 minutes of music as laughable as it is tortuous.
Everything is wrong here. The music, the melodies, the vocals, the structuring - it's all awful. Salesmen and message boards will tell you their sound evolved with the new members, though that's nothing more than a feeble excuse for a bad record. The mid-tour-replacements-turned-permanent additions deliver disastrous performances more suited for wannabe YouTube covers. Former-That's Outrageous vocalist Doriano Magliano displays God-awful monotone screams like a pissed-off 7th grader, a comparison heightened by lyrics more appropriate for recess brawls than recorded music; at best, he's a Diet Michael Bohn with idiotic lyrics. What's worse is the band's insistence he take the lead - Doriano received the majority of vocal real estate in the first half of Genesi[s], without Alligood so much as squeaking until halfway through the third song. Meanwhile on guitar, Andrew Paiano bores the paint off walls with mindless and unimaginative riffing; the ex-Abandon All Ships guitarist makes us yearn for Tim Sherrill's lead lines, tapping, and interesting rhythms, treats we took for granted on Number[s]. The instrumentation across the board appears completely phoned in, even lacking the band's signature programming and keyboards. There's just nothing of value to be found.
In case it wasn't clear, let me spell it out for you: this is one of the worst albums I've ever heard.
Every aspect of Genesi[s] is so contrived it's disgusting. We've already touched on the "it's us against the world, fuck those guys who used to be in this band" lyrical themes, so let's tackle the ridiculously cliche song structures. As if the singer/screamer dynamic wasn't typical enough, the band elected to use the slow-building epic ("Family First") and acoustic version ("Nothing Left To Lose") models - as blatantly as Woe brown-noses teens with no taste, I'm surprised there's no pop screamo cover here. Then again, one dose of originality (the transition in "I Came I Saw I Conquered") completely sucks, so maybe this is the best they're capable of.
As infuriating as the mind-numbing tracks are, the wasted talent is what really irritates me. On "#Vengeance" and the Oh, Manhattan record, Hance Alligood showed all the vocal tools to be Fuentes or Craig - instead of harnessing that potential, his vocals are buried between Doriano's garbage, his own lame lyrics, and medicore production. Every clean melody on the album sounds overprocessed, using completely unnecessary effects to keep up with current flavors and eliminating Alligood's natural power; one would think the elimination of keyboards would allow Hance to cut through the mix even easier, but he's puddled in with the dull. Considering Cameron Mizzell also produced Number[s] and "#Vengeance," it's peculiar and inexcusable how muddy the mix is, though I'm tempted to blame the band themselves.
The only listenable moments are the few times Woe takes an almost-A Day To Remember tone, present in best-of-the-worst "Call It Like You See It" and the chorus/outro of "A Story To Tell;" as the only glimmer of hope, it's an avenue worth exploring for the band.
All in all, there's really no reason to listen to Genesi[s].
For anyone who likes this album, I'd be happy to provide you with a list of heavy albums that are infinitely better.
That's pretty much what it comes down to for me. I can't figure out why anyone in their right mind would listen to this and similar stuff--and let's be real, tons of kids love this stuff--when there is metalcore that is so, so much better that it's really not even fair.
I'm in total agreement with you on this one. I liked the technical aspect and production on Number[s], which is why I kind of enjoyed most of the album and "Vengeance". This album's biggest problem is that they're trying way too hard to make people focus on the lyrical aspect, which is the weakest part about the band. I cringe every time I watch that lyric video for "I've Told You Once" for that reason. It's like they want you to really study the horrible, generic lyrics and analyze them, when there's zero subtext to them at all to study.
Everything else is by-the-numbers bad, but it's specifically the lyrics that make the record go from bad to completely terrible.
I'm in total agreement with you on this one. I liked the technical aspect and production on Number[s], which is why I kind of enjoyed most of the album and "Vengeance". This album's biggest problem is that they're trying way too hard to make people focus on the lyrical aspect, which is the weakest part about the band. I cringe every time I watch that lyric video for "I've Told You Once" for that reason. It's like they want you to really study the horrible, generic lyrics and analyze them, when there's zero subtext to them at all to study.
Everything else is by-the-numbers bad, but it's specifically the lyrics that make the record go from bad to completely terrible.
Don't you mean by-the-number[s]?
...yeah, I groaned at that one, too.
I'm guessing this isn't even worth checking out, especially is Tyler was the only thing I really enjoyed from the first album.
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