Paramore - After Laughter
Fueled by Ramen | Release Date: 12th May 2017 Sikth - The Future in Whose Eyes?
Victor Entertainment Inc | Release Date: 2nd June 2017
Back after three years, and with them original
drummer, Zac Farro, Paramore give us ‘After Laughter’;
a sparkly synth-covered album of lament, struggle
and party vibes. It’s been a long time in the making
and one things for sure, this isn’t the balls-to-the-wall
‘RIOT!’ Paramore we all fell in love with back in the
early noughties. Paramore’s distinct swerve towards
pop melodies is something that cannot be avoided.
Gone are the slamming guitars and the pop punk paces,
and in place are bouncy keyboards and radio-friendly
rhythms. Yet Hayley, Zac and Josh still feel as alternative
as they’ve always been. In true rock n roll style they’ve
disregarded what they should or shouldn’t be and made
a record they wanted to make. Since the beginning of the millennium, Watford sextet Sikth
established themselves as one of the biggest influences on
experimental/progressive metal with their amalgamation of
hardcore, metal, nu metal and even avant-garde. The Future
In Whose Eyes?, the band’s first full length album in over
ten years, shows Sikth still doing what they do best. Despite
their music having matured and the production being
much cleaner, there is still a sense of fun in their songs as
singers Mikee and new addition Joe’s vocals flick between
Dalek, psychotic cartoon character and even Dickensian-
style narration over the crazy fret-work, bouncing bass
lines and interesting time signatures. The songs here might
not have quite the same unhinged chaos as their early EPs
and debut album but it’s certainly not totally lost. While
song structure and hooks can sometimes be hard to come
across in progressive metal, songs like Ride The Illusion, No
Wishbones and Aura are potential future Sikth classics due
to their memorable choruses. Throughout the record, the
band also manages to create crushingly heavy breakdowns
by fusing jagged rhythms with technical guitar riffs instead
of the standard one-chord chugging. There are some
intermission tracks involving monologues which possibly tell
a story but come off a bit like filler, not really adding much to
the album as a whole. The Future In Whose Eyes? is definitely
an enjoyable listen and a great addition to Sikth’s repertoire
but where they were once the future of metal, they haven’t
quite kept up with the times to make this a breakthrough
record...but it’s still close.
Lead singles, ‘Hard Times’ and ‘Told You So’, create a
tropical dance vibe which leave you emulating Hayley
Williams as you sing a long, and the addition of ‘Rose-
Coloured Boy’ in this opening trio leaves you feeling all
kinds of happy. There’s still pops of anger throughout
‘After Laughter’, whether that be in the vocal rasps of
‘Idle Worship’, the spoken urgency of ‘No Friend’ or
even just the lyrical content in general. Dissecting the
lyrics of ‘After Laughter’ reveal a sort of irony; in many
places the happy melodies are juxtaposed with words
of sadness. But what better way to get the sadness out
than dancing it away with Hayley and the gang! Plus
those lyrics are bound to adorn the Instagram captions
of hundreds of selfies, the modern way of measuring
success. So what if ‘After Laughter’ is a radio friendly
pop fiasco? It’s rad, it works and it’s a lot of fun. Welcome
back Paramore, come hang with us and our weather?
Words by Jonathan Miller
Words by Alice Hoddinott
www.eliteonlinemag.com
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