3 May 2016

Six in Line: "U Shud Hev Invtd Me"


A bit too fun without too much thought about substance
Metal doesn't have to be serious business all the time, but it helps when the music doesn't have to be held up by a gimmick like comedy and humour. Seriousness about your craft and ideals can often be misinterpreted as self-importance and arrogance, or come off as goofy. Most comedic bands, however, are too caught up in their own inside-jokes to worry about the actual quality of their music. Everything in moderation.


Six in Line from Sweden are, at the heart, a thrash metal band, but with comedic aesthetics courtesy of fake beards and dollar-store costumes. Their second demo, U Shud Hev Invtd Me, as such features your standard mid-to-high tempo thrash riffs, a few pounding d-beats and a vocal effort that could probably be most flatteringly described as "unique". The demo starts off with a short burst of spooky halloween-type melodies, and this sort of tongue-in-cheek tendency seems to be a running theme with Six in Line. Towing a string of gang shouts in line with We Intend to Hang You, the Swedish band does fairly well at composing and presenting engaging thrash metal with a touch of melody - Without which their arrangements would likely be unmemorable and incoherent.

"...the group's grooving riffs tend to go on and on in the same vein without ever really going anywhere."

The irrevocably worst part of Six in Line's sound is the vocals. Kaptajn Nuke's raw, discordant screaming is completely out of place at all times, and brings nothing at all to the table. The music in itself isn't completely terrible, but paired with those vocals it gets tired really quickly, even over the less than 15 minutes of play time on U Shud Hev Invtd Me. On the long run, the group's grooving riffs tend to go on and on in the same vein without ever really going anywhere. With no clearly defined verse, chorus or structure otherwise, the demo comes off a bit too incoherent and underprocessed.

Six in Line may yet come through and up their game. As far as musicianship goes, the band's second demo isn't completely terrible. You can hear that they're having fun, and that gives it a boost in the right direction. But overall the songwriting is underdeveloped and lacking in most aspects.

5/10


Released in 2011 independently

Links
Six in Line on FACEBOOK
Six in Line on BANDCAMP

Follow TONEwood on Facebook for daily updates!

No comments:

Post a Comment