Deride
Scars Of Time
The Music Cartel
In these post-Korn times, if you’re going to do nu-metal, you’ve either gotta be garishly radio-ready (Linkin Park, Cold, Papa Roach) or over-the-top aggressive (Soulfly, Mudvayne, Papa Roach) to really make a name for yourself. Deride do neither on their debut album, Scars Of Time. Sure, you could be polite and say it’s well executed and that nothing is inherently wrong with it, but you can also say there’s nothing inherently great about it either, nothing really standing out except for some blusteringly banal lyrics (from “Comaborn,” the most laughable lyrics this side of Guano Apes’ Satan-as-snowboarder “Lord of the Boards”: “If you look a little further beyond your painted eyes/you will see there’s more to this world than fashion and Britney Spears/if you search a little longer before you start to cry/you will find there’s more to this world than Kid Rock and lies!” • I mean, why do metal bands validate said individuals by incessantly addressing their obvious ills? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg•). Sigh. In fact, Scars Of Time conspicuously sounds a whole lot like Deride were late ’80s thrashers themselves who decided to bet the farm and get hip to these Meshuggah-on-methadone times (“Skinlab syndrome,” I’d call it), the only band capably pulling off this makeover being Living Sacrifice and their excellent The Hammering Process. Really, I can’t muster any more analysis here, I’m that underwhelmed • to paraphrase Faster Pussycat, wake me when it’s over.
The Music Cartel, PO Box 629, Port Washington, NY 11050; http://ww.music-cartel.com
