Saliva Survival of the Sickest Island
Breaking Benjamin We Are Not Alone Hollywood
I'm not a musician, so (obviously) I'm not in a position to give advice to musicians. But I feel like I can make an exception with Saliva, a band that probably don't have a lot of professional pretensions. And here's my advice: Make an instrumental album. Or an album where all the lyrics are sung in a different language. Cantonese, perhaps. I realize that sounds vaguely insulting, especially since vocalist Josey Scott is supposedly the "brains" of this outfit and the driving force behind Survival of the Sickest. But the fact remains: This album would be better without Scott screaming about absolute nonsense. Somebody should send these dudes a Tortoise record.
Survival of the Sickest opens with a song called "Rock & Roll Revolution" and ends with a hidden track called "Sex, Drugs & Rock-n-Roll." This is interesting for two reasons. The first is that Saliva is clearly experiencing a crisis of confidence over how one should punctuate the phrase rock'n'roll. The second is that the "revolution" they speak of is actually a reactionary attempt to make rock music sound exactly as it's always sounded. Scott criticizes unnamed rival bands who "whine" about wanting to "save the world," ordering them to "step aside." I have no idea which bands he thinks he's referring to; it's possible these lyrics were written by Sebastian Bach in 1993. Still, there's some punishing Godsmackian guitar work on Survival of the Sickest, and the production has a Montana-esque vastness that will undoubtedly sound good on terrible radio stations across the U.S.
I'm also in no position to advise songwriters. Billy Corgan, on the other hand, is a different story. According to the press kit for Breaking Benjamin's We Are Not Alone, Corgan co-wrote three songs with Benjamin frontman Ben Burnley, and advised him to "think outside the box." Excellent. Maybe next time Corgan will tell Burnley to proactively create synergy and outsource his core competencies. It's a win-win!
Burnley sounds like Tool's Maynard James Keenan--if he were in a really good mood. But his songs are kind of stock, except for the three he wrote with Corgan; those are smarter and slightly less conventional. "Follow" is built around a staccato guitar riff that reminds me of Ozzy sideman Jake E. Lee and sounds like top-shelf Christian metal. The record's concluding ballad ("Rain," also co-written with Corgan) is mediocre Oasis, which means it's still pretty good. These guys are so far outside the box they're practically inside a rhombus--slanted, if not necessarily enchanted.
Grades: Saliva, C- Breaking Benajmin, C+
