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Unsigned / Self-released
by Craig Hartranft
10.04.2013
While spinning Defy Tolerance's Stop The Bleeding, I thought my only options were to be depressed or hit the skip button. Vocalist, guitarist, and principal lyricist Freddy Kilo seems to be a rather unhappy person or, at the very least, conflicted.
He's held back by a Ball and Chain; somebody is trying to Suffocate him; nearly Zombified instead of alive; and facing the disappointment of Epic Failure. Yet he will still Live For Today with No Complaints. Where did all the Cobain grunge angst from? He can't be more than 25 years old.
Then all this is wrapped up in modern d-turned post-grunge hard rock akin to anything from Creed to Alterbridge to Godsmack to Nickelback. But perhaps too heavy and not 'poppy' enough for that latter reference. The highlight of the album is easily the first track. It has the best vocal arrangement and strength of melody. The other songs simply run together as exercises in d-tuned heaviness. Tie in the depressing lyrics and all I wanted to do was skip to the next and the next and get to the end. Actually, maybe my favorite part of Stop The Bleeding was the end, when the album was over. But, musically, I get where Defy Tolerance is coming from. They just need to find some spark that sets them apart from the other thousand bands that sound the same.
Mix depressing angst-driven lyrics with d-tuned modern hard rock heaviness and you have Defy Tolerance, not always a pleasing combination.
This experience deserves mention for one very good reason: Finland's One Desire is one of the best classic AOR melodic hard rock bands in the genre and, perhaps, the world, right now So, I also apologize, in ... [ Read More ]