Death From Above 1979 ''Outrage! IS Now'' (2017)
On my first listens I quickly fell in love with individual songs by this band, their Dance Punk and Noise Rock feel, their gritty synths, screams and incredible noise produced from Jesse F. Keeler's bass guitar rig consisting of lots pedals and crazy tunings.
As an album Outrage! Is Now lacks some cohesiveness, but their almost DIY Dance Punk aesthetic makes it easy to groove along with these songs and their heavy riffs, aggressive drums and earnest screams. Yet some of these songs are really lacking in vital parts, the record starts of strong with the tracks Nomad and Freeze Me but until All I C Is U & Me I lose the magic those first songs give me, the pacing of these other tracks feels off, giving more attention to synths when this band's focus should be their unique and powerful sound, they just fall short.
The main thing most of these songs are missing is the continuous energy we get in the songs I listed above, Nomad, Freeze Me and All I C Is U & Me, they let their sounds drone through with drums adding some spice to form a nice sound that works along side the vocals to create a powerful combination. In a lot of the other songs like Never Swim Alone, Statues, NVR 4EVR and Holy Books, the strumming of the key component, the bass guitar noise machine is very repetitive with the vocals laid on top of it or riffs that don't integrate well with the vocals due to their energy being so mismatched.
The main thing most of these songs are missing is the continuous energy we get in the songs I listed above, Nomad, Freeze Me and All I C Is U & Me, they let their sounds drone through with drums adding some spice to form a nice sound that works along side the vocals to create a powerful combination. In a lot of the other songs like Never Swim Alone, Statues, NVR 4EVR and Holy Books, the strumming of the key component, the bass guitar noise machine is very repetitive with the vocals laid on top of it or riffs that don't integrate well with the vocals due to their energy being so mismatched.
Their sound has gone through a few changes throughout their start in 2001 - 2006 break up and get together in 2011 until now, and yet they don't stray too far from their Dance Punk and Hard Rock roots, in comparison to their 3 albums created before Outrage! Is Now they've become heavier and slower, ditching some of the instrumental quirks and generally refining their sound, a good change in my eyes.
All in all I don't have too much to say about this record but it's one I've wanted to think about and write about anyways, a few great individual songs you can really rock out to, but as an album it lacks some of the magic that I've grown so used to hearing.
6/10