Sometimes you’ll sit down to listen to a record and on the first play you’re not keen. Then sometimes, by the third or fourth listen you might find yourself coming round to it. This is commonly known as a ‘grower’. The question is, does anyone know what the opposite of that is? Because The One Hundred have done that.
Upon first listen this record throws some 2011 nostalgia in your face, harking back to a time when Skrillex was cool and collaborating with Korn. It’s an exciting trio of throwback riffs, teeth-rattling breakdowns and a incendiary vocal line to top it all off. While opener ‘Dreamcatcher’ might not set a fair pace for the album (a low point in all honesty) tracks like ‘Boomtown’ bring the fireworks before collapsing on itself and the drum and bass takes over. At times this is so incredibly well done and it feels like this could well before the future of electronic rock.
There are innovative moments and lyrically there are high peaks. Real poison comes out of the vocals, a proper government overthrowing, firestarting, nosebreaking, punch to the chops that feels unrelentless. Nothing on this album is plastic and there is a genuine soul and purpose for this collection of tracks. At times it can be stunning.
The problem is that The One Hundred have brought all the right ingredients to the cocktail party but the ratios are off. While there’s no lack of passion, power and fury it does lack depth. This record should have been more dynamic. Nostalgia can get boring after a while and by the time you’ve heard ‘Chaos & Bliss’ from start to finish a handful of times it can sound tired, jaded and a little bit all done before.
Despite being well put together and thought out ‘Chaos & Bliss’ could have been so much more. Don’t discount this band however; they just need some fine tuning. The One Hundred have shown so much potential and effort but are not quite there in the execution.
WILLIAM SCOTT