An all-American sounding album, heavily influenced by System of a Down (or at least that’s what it sounds like), Kamizake Test Pilots offering is very impressive. Hitting all of the stereotypical band qualities one could hope for, the guitar solos are quite impressive in places, and they seem to be quite fond of ramping up the tempo to enhance the mood.
The song that opens the album, Dinosaur, sounds like it has been ripped straight off of a SoaD album, but opens with a quote which if we Googled could probably be traced (I didn’t linger on it too much). This song is bouncey, random and very fun. Appropriate pausing in the chorus adds bounciness, and if you are into random hyperactive displays this is definitely for you. The guitar solo has an echo effect put on it, so it reminds us of if Muse met Jimi Hendrix and had a music baby.
This album seems to be highlighting various musical threads and fusing them with rock and metal to create new waves of sound. Patrick sounds like it has been heavily influenced by Gotye’s recent track Somebody I Used To Know, and cowboy-rock seems to be a theme in HappySlapper and Perseverance, although the former does revert to more stereotypical for the chorus. The most surprising in this way is Kumusha, because it starts off on bongo drums, rushing in with the rock later on. It has a very Caribbean sounding way about it and Basop has a similar feel, except it seems to be expressing more of a New Orleans vibe. It is annoyingly familiar and if someone can name the advert it has been in it would be much appreciated.
Speaking of familiarity – Shoeshine sounds like it was part of the soundtrack for Tony Hawk Underground 2, and definitely not in a bad way. It is part random jump-around kinda music, part strange but all good.
Simplicity is best when it comes to Chicken, as you quickly realise that it is based around the story of Chicken Little. The intro sounds like something that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers gave birth to but that was raised by Kid Rock, judging from how it moves on to the main part of the song.
Tracks that we want to see released as singles are Patrick and Turnpike, the latter for being so fun and outrageous that it cannot be ignored. The track to avoid is Betterway, but then I’ve gone off acoustic duets this month.
Overall this is a pretty stellar album, catering to all bandwidths of the rock/alternative/metal love. Definite peaks and troughs, but it is all dependent on taste. Some would argue that trying to please everyone may not work and they would be closed-minded and not able to enjoy life as a result.
7/10
