Deceptively at times down home, dirty jeans metlacoar, swooping in with lady voiced licorice harmonies –Broken Frames is as incongruous in the ears as it seems on your monitor. The two (admittedly tried and true formulas of yore) simply do not mix, as the RiseRecordscore brodowning is the water to the Daughtry vs. Paramore’s oil. There is something attractive about the female register interacting with heavily compressed chugalugs or drop c popcore – especially when the woman holding the mic pronounces with such vigor as the aforementioned Paramore or I Hate Sally (rip). But those bands this one is not, and Ms. William’s brass balls signature is notably missing from guitarist and vocalist Alexia’s melodramatic control. But these songs are placebos after all, easy to swallow, 100% sugar, and a quick dose of confection with an ambiguous promise of greater intensity and effect. The latter refers to this band’s perceived edge over VJ personality pop, that same predictable recipe with nu-core sensibility shoehorned in to beckon the tween Warped Tour listeners into the fold. This doesn’t raise the ingenuity of either brand of alterna-metal Eyes Set To Kill happen to be favouring that second.
No, it is not a grating listen, but unfortunately innutritious without the guilty pleasure element (coughfuckingbowdown). It is just not damn fun enough to support its precious silliness; a supreme lolwut is directed towards “Ryan”. Par for the course is an insufferable obnoxiousness that simply is not found on Broken Frames – unfortunately inspiring a bored to tears sentiment instead of high horse teeth grinding. “Ticking Bombs” ballads worse than Option Paralysis, while “Falling Fast” noodles humbly with phrasing done by better bands in better times. But what can else can I review, when the gimmick (at best) is repeated in every song that is not boo hoo balladeering (worst offender being the final track)? When the distinct aspects that separate the tracks are so public domain to begin with? Ultimately coming off as more of a wispy denouement for stylized metalcore that once was crowned king ten-plus years ago, Broken Frames’ irrelevance and 5th gen filtering is a moot point… at this point. We’ve had our endless say about the ho hum life and death of Gothenburg-meets-McDonalds on the mosh front. What you hear is what you get, is it really worth it to question how it squirmed into your ears in the first place when material like Periphery is on the shelves of your local record store?
The tracks are kid-safe (or neutered) metalcore jaunts that never really feel dangerous or justify the rawr vocals, other than the fact that they are so fucking customary in this time. Operating more as a teehee fashion statement than justified band (is that only the female band members on the cover of Outburn?), the output really does offer nothing stand-out. The tropes are there, it is produced worth a damn, and is so behind the times that it sidesteps the brand new nauseating developments in ~PRoGrEssIvEDeAthCorE~ , but my God does it not accomplish a hell of a lot outside of that.
(3.0/10)
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