Kathleen Turner Overdrive — Marauders! Wolves! Scavengers! Party! Review
Kathleen Turner Overdrive: Marauders! Wolves! Scavengers! Party!Label: Underground Operations
Rating: 3/5
I’m a huge fan of just about every single release from Underground Operations’ “classic” roster. KTO is one of Underground Operations recent additions, which basically means that I didn’t know what to expect from them.
The Toronto band produced and recorded this EP themselves, and it sound neither too polished nor underproduced. What it does sound like is heavy hardcore.
Most of the music here is pretty monotonous, to be honest. Steve the vocalist has a decent repertoire, from screams to rants, but it sounds to me like he’s always thinking “I have to sound angry because of our genre.” The rest of the band try to make use of less-then-more techniques, and sometimes it just doesn’t succeed in terms of mixing things up (“Gin and Slime” is a good example).
“Ex-Vegas or P***y Thieves” and “Total F***in’ Blackout” work well for different reasons—the former provides different segments instead of just different combinations and variations on the same riff, and the latter is just a short, effective blast of hardcore.
My basic problem with Kathleen Turner Overdrive is that there’s nothing too memorable about their songs, at least on this disc—everything on it sounds fine, but it’s like the lyrics could be anything/they’re just “good enough.” The same goes for the songwriting—the guys can clearly play fine, but they don’t seem too concerned with build-up or hooks or anything that will stick in the listener’s head more than a minute after hearing them.
If a band doesn’t take songcraft that seriously, it’s hard to take their songs seriously. I have the feeling that Kathleen Turner Overdrive wouldn’t argue with the assessment that their music is kind of fun but nothing that leaves an impression. File KTO under “Maybe catch them live.”
Listen/Download: “Total ____in’ Blackout”
Tags: EP
you’re fucking wrong buddy! this cd is revolutionary and this band is going somewhere, you can eat hardcores ass if you think this is a mild, bland, boring or monotonous album. fuck off you wordy homo, go listen to underoath.