THE PHOENIX
e-one Music.
Alternative Metal, Alternative Rock.
Listening Format: CD & Digital
If you are like me and you were a teenager at the start of the 2000s then you will probably have a soft spot for CKY. Back then, MTV was still worth watching, extreme sports were cooler than a good meme, and the show Jackass was must watch television. So those who enjoyed watching men eating their own puke and falling off skateboards will undoubtedly hold CKY's first two albums dearly. Even to this day, 'Volume 1' and 'Infiltrate. Destroy. Rebuild.' are brilliant staple-pieces of American early 00s Alternative Rock/Metal. I can still look back fondly with rose-tinted glasses on songs as classy as '96 Quite Bitter Beings', 'Sara's Mask', 'Disengage the Simulator', 'Flesh Into Gear' and 'Escape From Hellview', and think back to where the most stressful time in my life was cringing as the Jackass crew hurt themselves for my viewing pleasure.
For some reason though, by the time CKY's 2005 album 'An Answer Can Be Found' rolled along, my music and viewing pleasures had changed drastically. This and their subsequent album (2009's 'Carver City') didn't even enter my radar. Even at the time I don't remember hearing one song from them or being aware of their existence. Just as the interest in Jackass declined by the end of the decade, so did the interest in anything resembling Nu-Metal. Things are different in 2017 though. Nostalgia is a powerful entity. It's a year where the SNES is available on shelves again, there is a new Blade Runner, Star Wars AND Alien film... Even fucking Jumanji is getting a reboot! FUCKING JUMANJI!!! So you know, might as well give the new CKY album a listen. WHY THE FUCK NOT!?
It's worth noting that band founder, lead vocalist and contributing songwriter Deron Miller has left the band. Chad Ginsburg has not only stepped in to take over lead vocals but also produced the album... And OH...DEAR...LORD. I'm not even kidding, his vocal performance on this album sounds like your mate who always drinks way too much, stumbles about, slurs all his words and eventually collapses in front of the toilet. Deron Miller had a pretty versatile voice that was able to do awesome shouty vocals, as well as clean vocals that had a strong sense of melodicism. He would also use the dynamics of his voice to bring shades of dark and light to their songs. Well all that has gone out of the window. Chad Ginsburg is not cut out for the lead vocal role. His voice is incredibly one dimensional, and his deep, low pitched drawl seems to awkwardly try and tackle a higher range that just sounds like nails on a chalkboard. He flat out murders all of the songs here. His voice just seems to keep warbling uncontrollably, like he was genuinely hammered in that recording booth. But it would be unfair to single out his vocals, as the entire remnants of CKY really seem to struggle all over this record.
The best example is heard in the lead single, 'Days of Self Destruction'. It actually kicks off with a decent riff that sounds reminiscent of vintage CKY, but about 10 seconds in it is ruined by Chad's awful vocal. The song stumbles through a generic verse/chorus/verse phase and then in a spot where Deron Miller would probably have added an interesting change in gear, instead the band close off the song with A MINUTE AND A HALF of obnoxious guitar soloing. I'm not even kidding it feels like it is the first time CKY have ever attempted to play guitar solos! In the music video, Mastodon's Brent Hinds even appears to be teaching the band members how to play, which is an amusing touch. The truth is, this entire album is absolutely littered with these eyebrow raising guitar solos that serve no purpose other than to pad out a lack of song structure and ideas. 'Days of Self Destruction' ends as the title brilliantly prophesizes, with a wankfest of completely unmemorable, passionless and horribly mixed guitar dross until the song ends on an awkward fade out, like the sound engineer had said 'Nope... Not on my watch!" Seriously, this isn't a Frank Zappa album, this isn't an Yngwie Malmsteen album... What were you thinking??? 'Head For a Breakdown' is also plagued with horribly mixed and flat sounding guitar licks and solos when Ginsburg isn't barfing over the track, piercing the brain with their horribleness. Even the guitars sound like they are vomiting... Perhaps even worse is there are some Poppier numbers on this album that actually sound like they are trying to sound like Fall Out Boy... Recent Fall Out Boy (which is far worse). Opening track 'Replaceable' has this awful upbeat dance friendly stomp that just does not fit the CKY sound at all.
'The Phoenix' has 8 songs and only lasts 30 minutes, and manages to say absolutely nothing worthwhile in the process. Generic riffs, awful vocals, and some of the worst excuses for guitar solos I have ever heard. The songs lack any dynamics or strong hooks. Most of the choruses just end up repeating whatever the title is over and over. The mix is horrible, with the lead guitar lines in particular having this really piercing tone that claws at the inside of my ears, and the vocals are completely the opposite pitch to the guitars, often sounding off key, sloppy and unintelligible. There is such a consistent lack of spark or imagination across this whole album, that I don't even know why they bothered to go and record these songs in the first place. Awful attempts at Pop crossovers, half assed performances, songs only memorable for how laughably moronic they are... I feel like Deron Miller must have got the last laugh, because he successfully managed to escape from hellview before the bomb dropped! You know when you look at an album's track titles and it seems to be telling the story for you... 'Replaceable', 'Days of Self Destruction', 'Head For a Breakdown', 'Wiping Off the Dead'... Yeah... It will take something really special to prevent this from being the worst album of 2017. Maybe I'll go check out that new Linkin Park album everyone is raving about... 2/10.
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