Weezer – Maladroit

Maladroit is sort of a forgotten album among Weezer fans, everyone talks about the Blue Album and Pinkerton and a few rungs down you’ll hear praise for the Green Album and most critics would then consider anything past those three as a lost cause.  Most people talk about their distaste for Make Believe, Red Album, and Hurley. Anything afterwards is at the point where people stopped keeping up with Weezer, but nobody talks about Maladroit. It seems most people go from Green Album and skip straight to Make Believe, it’s like everyone seems to have forgotten this album. But is this album worth listening to if people have forgotten it?

Maladroit has a bit of a hybrid sound when compared to some of their other albums, it’s sort of like a progression from the Green Album and mixes it with some aspects of the previous albums. It has the poppier aspects of Green, and mixes it with the edge and agression of Pinkerton and Blue. With the hybrid sound between “new” (at the time) and old Weezer, it throws in some of the heaviest riffs of their career. Even the guitars are thicker and crunchier compared to the previous releases.

Musically there’s plenty of fun guitar work, while there’s still a bit of simple three or four powerchord wank like of their typical style, but they have some interesting guitar lines and some pretty good solos. It does seem that there’s lots of overdubbing in the songs to give either the riffs a thicker sound, or a bigger bite to the solos. Lyrically it may not be fantastic, but Weezer lyrics were usually not anything many people would write about, so unless you’re a lyric snob, you shouldn’t be too worried about the lyrical quality of the album.

The biggest letdown of the album is the running time, at barely over half an hour with 13 tracks, and the longest song is 3:09, you can feel a bit disappointed and wanting more out of a few songs, wishing they were a bit longer. So with some songs feeling a bit underdeveloped, the album is still a very solid listening and is probably one of the most underrated aspects in the Weezer catalog and a must listen for a Weezer fan who wants more to Weezer than the first 3 albums.

Grungie’s rating 4/5

Bringing Heavy Music to MTB, pt. 1: In Honor Of

Welcome to “Bringing heavy music to MTB”! This new column on our beloved MTB is meant to feature new bands or bring bands to your attention, with a focus on heavy bands (Hardcore, Metalcore, Metal, etc.) that you should check out! The band featured today is called “In Honor Of”, who are a Metalcore band from Connecticut.

Lineup:

Vocals – Brandon Podlisny
Guitar – Dave Pazik
Guitar/Vocals – Joe DiPalma
Drums – Nabeel Nassar
Bass – Kevin “Flakes” Jacques

Brief history:
In Honor Of are fairly new. The band was founded a year ago by their drummer Nabeel and guitarist Dave.  About 7 months ago, Nabeel and Dave formed a full band with the rest of the guys and released their first single. They recently released their debut EP “Iron Giant” in July.

Since then, they feel as though they have only grown as better musicians. Being such a new band, they had an explosive first show and have only gotten better from there. The band were 2nd in their state in Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands, which is pretty exciting.

Albums/EPs:

In Honor Of’s “Iron Giant” EP

Available for name your price at http://inhonorof.bandcamp.com/.
What I like About Them:

I’m particularly fond of the way this band uses pianos in their Metalcore compositions and are quite good at adding accompany melody to their heavy riffs. They also make good use of Hardcore-style breakdowns. Melodic choruses round out heavy songs. Truly a treat for the ears of those looking for something new in heavy music!

And that’s it for my first band feature! Look for our more bands to be featured soon!

— Contact rocklikeafool at http://musictalkboard.icyboards.net/member.php?action=profile&uid=29.