Sebastian Bach - Angel Down

Angel Down is seen to be a collection of songs which seem to be lacking in musical diversity. The choice of tracks on this album seems poorly chosen and as such many of the fourteen songs sound remarkably similar. All encompass the same use of simple, heavy and repetitive guitar riffs accompanied by poorly sung vocals which often fail to reach, let alone hit the desired notes. The only notable up side to this problem is that the riffs make the solos sound a lot better than they actually are; many musicians would be bored rigid playing the tunes.

There are various vocal techniques used throughout the album, all failing to reach the best of their ability. The singing can be noted as the best use of vocals throughout the record, sounding more eerie and haunting than any other vocal styling. The use of screaming and growling makes the music sound more ridiculous than it already does. The scratchy screeches make the words inaudible and just grate on you after a few minutes of tolerating them. The growls, although rarely used, don’t really sound as though they belong within this album, instead sounding like they were put in because no-one knew what else to use. This album, though musically mundane, would benefit tremendously from having the vocals re-sung by someone with some musical ability.

The use of harmonies seems a prominent technique throughout the record; being used within not only the guitar riffs but also the vocals. Both uses seem to be pretty pointless and a better technique could have been devised to improve the music. Even though the music itself is poor, when put into context with the rest of the album, including vocals, it doesn’t seem that bad altogether. The major let down, being the poorly developed vocals.

The three tracks featuring Axl Rose do not help to enrich the vocals, in fact his voice grates on you just as much as the other one; and when both are being used to harmonise, it’s amazing that the album was ever released. The lyrics within the song Back in the Saddle seem rather ironic when you consider that Axl Rose is the one singing them; this irony is not lost on me.

American Metalhead lulls you into a false sense of security by convincing you that, due to the chugging guitar and the fast paced riffs, it is going to be much better than the previous tracks. Perhaps it will redeem itself yet, but no, the scratchy vocals return and abolish any hope of it improving. The same can be said of the track Negative Light as the eerie guitar gives way to yet again tedious riffs and awful vocals.

The only two tracks differing from the collective are By Your Side and Falling Into You. The first of these employs an acoustic guitar throughout and using a slow solo, helps to compensate for the appalling use of pinch harmonics and other guitar techniques found in previous tracks. Though the vocals are still not all that amazing, they are notably better here, actually managing to hit the desired notes. Falling Into You not only sounds more like a pop song, but also employs not only a piano, but also a trumpet as the song progresses. This is seen to be a vast improvement on the rest of the album and as such can be considered a much better way to end the album.

This album, I feel, is nothing more than background music at best. As such I would recommend that it be played at a lower level to most other albums and make sure there is something to distract you from the tedium that is the monotony of the tracks.