The most striking thing about The Blood Brothers is that the band features two lead vocals, Jordan Blilie and Johnny Whitney. This isn’t such a unique concept with bands and groups like Linkin Park and Outkast having already been there and done that. But for the metal and hardcore genre, having dual vocals creates a huge disconnect in songs where both share singing duties.
Although in some instances, both sound fairly similar. In the title track “Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck” the two singers tread around the same mood and pattern with the slight difference of Jordan’s mania as opposed to the more subdued Johnny. But this difference works very well with the song, creating an infectious contrast between Jordan’s “Car Wreck” and Johnny’s “Love.” This mix, however, doesn’t really work in “Ladies And Gentlemen” because the various parts of the song don’t juxtapose well together. It sounds like a poetic mess.
The other original song on this EP is the Coheed And Cambria-sounding “Metronomes” which is very sticky, at best. The melody is nonexistent, unless you consider the song’s choppy beats as one. It’s too erratic to be a ballad and it’s too ballad-like to be anything else. The same goes for the alternate version of “Crimes” which also has that borderline song of anythingness. Hardcore bands shouldn’t play ballads and it’s obvious that The Blood Brothers have that same idea, but they can’t help but lean toward that direction on these two tracks.
TBB also engages in a very good impersonation of Gang Of Four in their cover of “Anthrax.” TBB maintains the original song’s minimalist style and melody. Also included is the live version of “Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wreck” to which I might add could have sounded a lot better. While live versions are always great to include, the song just doesn’t sound as good (and yes I am including the obvious downgrade in quality of live performances).
It just seems as though Jordan’s vocals comes more across as screeching than singing. You might be able to chalk that up to her being incredibly in to her performance, where no one can really complain. All-in-all, Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck is an okay effort with the only standout being the non-live version of “Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wreck.” Everything else is ordinary.
[photo via Detour Magazine]
[photo via The Scene Star]
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Track list:
- 1. Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck
2. Ladies And Gents
3. Metronomes
4. Crimes (alt. version)
5. Peacock Skeleton With Crooked Fingers (remix)
6. Anthrax
7. Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck