Album Review
Defeater - TravelsDefeater - Travels

Perhaps listening to this album with a headache wasn’t the best idea in the world, but Defeater didn’t waste any time getting in my bad books. From the first second of their first track, vocalist Andy begins to scream, and (almost) doesn’t stop for the next 11 tracks and 32 minutes.

This is hardcore band Defeater’s debut album. Hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, they only recently changed their name from ‘Sluts’. They’re highly acclaimed in the realm of hardcore, but, unfortunately, I can’t see it. They sound like any other hardcore band: loud, crass, and unrelenting to the point of annoyance.

The saving grace of this album, and thankfully it’s a big one, is the story behind the songs. The lyrics tell the story of a man’s difficult life from the third person, from birth to death. I found myself entranced by reading the poignant story in the album sleeve as I listened along – like some bizarre talking book. It also manages to avoid the usual clichés of story-telling, and has some fantastically expressive lines. It captivates you from the opening line: “March 1945, unwanted from his first breath, a mother’s blessing born, a father’s burden worn”.

I’m afraid the problem with this idea is that I’ll never want to listen to an individual track again, because they all roll into one. And I would have to read the lyric book to know what they were singing about, because there’s no way you can decipher the screaming that overpowers all the tracks.

I can’t find much musical merit here, I’m afraid. On certain tracks, like ‘Everything Went Quiet’, the driving guitars cleverly mirror the aggression of the storyline, but for the most part, all of the tracks blend into one and sound like a wall of ill-defined noise.

If hardcore is your bag, this band might well hit the spot, but don’t expect anything out of the ordinary. If, like me, you prefer bands that you can sing along with and that don’t make you want to bury your head in a pillow, then I wouldn’t bother with this one. Does it make me boring to expect a song to contain singing instead of screaming?

1/5

Review by Helen Williams
 Band Members

Andy
Derek
Gus
Jay
Mike
 Track Listing
1. Blessed Burden
2. Everything Went Quiet
3. Nameless Streets
4. Forgiver Forgetter
5. The City By Dawn
6. Prophet In Plain Clothes
7. Carrying Weight
8. Moon Shine
9. The Blues
10. Debts
11. Cowardice
 Band Related Links
Defeater Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?