15 Reasons
The Art of Commitment
Graviton Music Services
2014
15 Reasons are a band hailing from Brussels, Belgium and they are indulging in this nu-breed rock malarkey, which bands like Stone Sour and Godsmack pioneered, with the whole overwhelming melancholy and weirdness factor being played out to the T. They claim to also have more metallic roots, citing, Metallica & Alice in Chains, just because they do have some riffs, on certain songs and I suppose that could be true, as bands like Metallica seem to be a globally huge band that could have indeed influenced them, but, do they really sound like they have been directly influenced by them, that’s highly debatable...
The band has existed in various formations since 2006 (?) and has played a lot of shows since then. “The Art of Commitment” is their third album that is a cumulative effort between the 3 members... with Valery Granson (guitars) bringing in the riffs, Fred Werner (drums) handling the lyrics and Nicholas Brynin (vocals and bass) creating the melodies, certain of those were created in the studio while others were written prior and tested in shows to be fine-tuned...
They initially seem to be aping their influences pretty much or at least going for a very safe “modernist” sound that makes the first few songs sound almost too similar and rather boring, unless this nu-cor(porate)emo-rock is your kind of thing... Angst in the verses, over some uninspired downtuned generic riffs, that are so similar with one another that you’d swear you’ve heard them a million times before or you have a hard time telling, one song from the other… that was basically the feeling I got from pretty much the first three or four tunes... even then, “The End of Everything” that followed was different in only the fact that is was more of a melodic tune, aping the more pussywhipped moments of Stone Sour (as if there are any Macho ones!)…
Following a weird little intro of hardly more than a minute with bizarre sounds, “Mirror/Mirror” (on the wall? lol) was actually the first number I did actually enjoy... “The broken shards of glass fall down onto my feet, A million eyes stare back to me in disbelief, Mirror mirror on the wall, Set me up to take a fall....”, seriously fucked up shit… and a much darker more evil mood, is more like it…or at least it was a bit more like White Zombie I guess, more groovy… so it didn’t suck as much as the previous tunes...? Could be that?
“Alyson Wonderland” continues the descent into madness by raising the ante as well as the tempo and then inviting the Mad Hatter for some tea! It’s positively bonkers and probably the best track on the album.
The band then goes for one slower slightly more “gothic sounding” track with “Broken Zero” while “Worm Inside” is probably the Metallica inspiration but hey didn’t Die Krupps, change direction, because they covered Metallica once upon a time hahaha...?
Oh and these guys just go off the deep end with a daring and long (about ten minute long actually) instrumental, that is the namesake of the album… “The Art of Commitment”! (Yup!)
Additionally there are 2 significantly shorter (radio edits) to “Damage Done” and “The End Of Everything” that make them way more direct and change their “whiney” character significantly… I mean the first especially feels a lot “faster” actually… and an EBM style version of the former entitled “I am Not the Enemy (Damage Done EBM remix)”…
While the band shows interesting potential, it’s not until after the first half of the album, after they decide to experiment and be themselves, that they are actually achieving the best results… interesting but only if they’d develop into an original band and not a Stone Sour copycat… for instance…
The band has existed in various formations since 2006 (?) and has played a lot of shows since then. “The Art of Commitment” is their third album that is a cumulative effort between the 3 members... with Valery Granson (guitars) bringing in the riffs, Fred Werner (drums) handling the lyrics and Nicholas Brynin (vocals and bass) creating the melodies, certain of those were created in the studio while others were written prior and tested in shows to be fine-tuned...
They initially seem to be aping their influences pretty much or at least going for a very safe “modernist” sound that makes the first few songs sound almost too similar and rather boring, unless this nu-cor(porate)emo-rock is your kind of thing... Angst in the verses, over some uninspired downtuned generic riffs, that are so similar with one another that you’d swear you’ve heard them a million times before or you have a hard time telling, one song from the other… that was basically the feeling I got from pretty much the first three or four tunes... even then, “The End of Everything” that followed was different in only the fact that is was more of a melodic tune, aping the more pussywhipped moments of Stone Sour (as if there are any Macho ones!)…
Following a weird little intro of hardly more than a minute with bizarre sounds, “Mirror/Mirror” (on the wall? lol) was actually the first number I did actually enjoy... “The broken shards of glass fall down onto my feet, A million eyes stare back to me in disbelief, Mirror mirror on the wall, Set me up to take a fall....”, seriously fucked up shit… and a much darker more evil mood, is more like it…or at least it was a bit more like White Zombie I guess, more groovy… so it didn’t suck as much as the previous tunes...? Could be that?
“Alyson Wonderland” continues the descent into madness by raising the ante as well as the tempo and then inviting the Mad Hatter for some tea! It’s positively bonkers and probably the best track on the album.
The band then goes for one slower slightly more “gothic sounding” track with “Broken Zero” while “Worm Inside” is probably the Metallica inspiration but hey didn’t Die Krupps, change direction, because they covered Metallica once upon a time hahaha...?
Oh and these guys just go off the deep end with a daring and long (about ten minute long actually) instrumental, that is the namesake of the album… “The Art of Commitment”! (Yup!)
Additionally there are 2 significantly shorter (radio edits) to “Damage Done” and “The End Of Everything” that make them way more direct and change their “whiney” character significantly… I mean the first especially feels a lot “faster” actually… and an EBM style version of the former entitled “I am Not the Enemy (Damage Done EBM remix)”…
While the band shows interesting potential, it’s not until after the first half of the album, after they decide to experiment and be themselves, that they are actually achieving the best results… interesting but only if they’d develop into an original band and not a Stone Sour copycat… for instance…