All Rights Reserved are rubbish. I’m sorry, but this is lowest common demoniator emo music for the weak of mind. There’s no identity, no originality and quality songs are few and far between. There’s absolutely nothing here to separate ARR from any other trashy wannabe bandwagon jumper that’s currently peddling music that is very quickly becoming cliched and dull. Now I don’t mind ’emo’ or post-hardcore music at all. I think the more popular bands of the genre, the Thursdays and Brand News of this world, are actually impressive. They make records which attempt to breathe new life into a genre flooded with rip-off merchants cashing in on the latest trend. They may not be wholly new or original, but they have an undeniable quality which attracts the record-buying public. But whenever a new genre is created, new bands come on the scene to flood the genre, cashing in on the popularity of other bands in a bid to make a quick buck. ARR have screams, breakdowns, slow parts and quick parts – it’s about as predictable as opening The Sun and discovering a page 3 dolly bird on the first inside page.
Bands like All Rights Reserved are the crows circling to pick the meat off the bones of a dying musial carcass. They rip away the good parts and devour them whole, killing off whatever life there may have been left in a genre which is slowly wasting away.
This 5-track EP is stale, bland and dull. It screams of unoriginality. So much so, that you can predict just when the backing screams will start, just when the quiet bits will come in and just when there’s going to be a change of pace. There’s no attempt to be different. There’s not even an attempt to stamp their own authority on this CD. The vocals are indiscriminate and could belong to anyone. The production is distinctly average too.
In short, this is pretty damn crap. I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this, but what the Hell. CDs like this are ten-a-penny and you will drown in the sea of medicority if you can’t cut the mustard. All Rights Reserved cannot cut it on the basis of this record. It’s shallow and uninspiring. It’s fodder for the anti-emo elite, who can use bands like this as ammunition for their ‘punk’ AK-47s.
www.allrightsreservedrock.com
Pumpkineater Records
Paul