As You Will

I've listened to a lot music, I've review a lot of music, and while I have had a lot of experience in music there is and always will be new music for me to listen to. In this case it comes in the form of a blending of electornica with thrash/death metal. I got to experience this music when listening to the album As You Will by the group The Captain Hates the Sea. Everything about this album threw me off when I first listened to it. With the name of the band being a bit odd I expected more of a alternative rock group, but then the first beats of the song “Catharsis” played making me think the music was going to be a punk rock possibly metal band. Then the vocals kicked in, or I should say they exploded through the walls with all the guttural screams and grunts taking over the song.

As You Will could have been an enjoyable CD if the music was truly a mixture of these two styles but The Captain Hates the Sea doesn't really accomplish a full mix of the styles. The songs do have both electornica and thrash/death metal being played but not at the same time, even when they are being played in the same song. It seems like they were trying to but what ended up being made was a song that would start with one style, say the thrash/death metal, then switch to electornica and then back to the metal or other way around with the electronica, metal, electronica. It's almost a on/off way they have done the songs instead of having the two being used at the same time.

Not to say the songs are bad, the vocals keep a even tone, well they do when they are being sung on a lower level and pitch, when they are being screamed out I just couldn't understand them enough to say they are bad or good. I did like the instrumentals in the songs, they are fast, they are intense, even when they are doing the odd sounds with the electronica portion they are fun to listen to. I would have liked to heard more of a blending of these styles to get a whole different genre of music for me to listen to but As You Will just don't fully accomplish that. This band has created an album when they have a sense of what they want to do, they've put together some songs that they feel are what they want to do, but it just sounds like a rough draft of what they could do if they can actually bring the two styles together. For now this album was just barely ok, it gets more points because it's sound was different and it does have a lot of energy but not enough to be more than a mild amusement.