Roach

28/07/2002

ROACH: "E-MotionP.orn" www.roach.ch

review by Dalia "Gryphon_spirit"

Roach is a new Swiss band from the Thurgau zone, that nowadays we cannot simply define as emerging any longer. They have already composed the title song for the "Out In The Green Festival 2000", and the band members, with a quantity of roughly 600 gigs on their shoulders, have gathered a good reputation and experience. Their style? Ahh the usual amletic question! Well we could say that they are playing emocore, that's to say an emotional hardcore which falls somewhere between hardness and affability, between darkness and dinamics, with a lot of personal inspiration. Surely they elaborate many influences coming from Deftones, Nirvana, Korn and Staind. But, at the end of story, they are presenting their Roach style whose intention is more that one to make itself felt instead of being simply enjoyed. And the fact that Roach fully deserve their success has been sealed by the honour to have opened the Ministry of Rock Open Air in Frauenfeld as first band appearing on that wonderful mainstage which has been treaten afterwards by acts like Gotthard, The Cure, Therapy?, Clawfinger, Soulfly, Rammstein , Dream Theater, among others.
Roach are able to obtain from guitar and bass a lot of hypnotic, persuasive, not predictable, many times distorced sounds. All tracks of this mini CD are well played, recorded in a perfect way. There is nothing left to its destiny, everything has been attended in every particular

The opener of this mini CD is MELLOW MOOD, which can make the joy of every Nirvana and Pearl Jam fans. Indeed here the influences from this grunge heritage are clearly to be heard, but they are presented with a new modern elaboration which merges them with notes à la System of a Down or Korn. The result is very interesting.

Even better in my opinion, is the second track ILL FLOWS: energetic, aggressive, with a lot of stressed guitar breaks, let remind more modern atmospheres in the wake of Engine for example but more downtuned. A real hit!

COLD SUNNY DAY, develops a sad soundscape and a catchy melody inside a structure tha can sound very "American". Its many loops are absolutely irresistible and hypnotic. MILK CAMPARI sounds to me very alternative, with a great work done by drummer Eddie, and the catchy refrains is merged with experimentation and time changings.

And finally! The most beautiful song of this mini CD is then, at my opinion, the last song GO ALONE: dark, sad, intense, atmospheric, hypnotic, repetitive (and the words "always the same" are stressed indeed by this obsessive magic repetitivity), with a formidable insert of bursting out guitars. This song , maybe more than the others, is putting in full foreground the vocals that here are appearing more than ever persuasive and sensual, and can turn also in very angry ones. Incredible the bass sounds. Wonderful the melody.
So, this is a valuable mini CD, that, moreover, is representing another proof of how really evolved and self-confident the Swiss scene is. Every time i'm astonished, and every time i'm not getting tired at all to repeat it. Ehi toc, toc!! My dear labels, toc toc!! is there anyone in your offices, who is not shortsighted and doesn't think that only Scandinavian or German bands can take out from their oven brilliant musical ideas? Ehh??
Anyway Roach are great, have a good number of fans and have been able to create a cool mini album. By the way, the production and the mixage of this work are high top quality. My congrats!
If you like emo and alternative rock , but with a big touch of heaviness, rage and modernity, and a lot of feeling and inspiration plus velvety but resolute vocals, this band is for you. Do you find Nirvana interesting but unfortunately a little bit old? This band is for you. Do you find Deftones, Massive Attacks and Fear Factory attractive but a little bit too loud? This band is for you. Me? Yes i am very happy to have this CD in my collection and for sure GO ALONE and ILL FLOWS will not find easy escape from my stereo Hi-Fi (hehehehehe)!!

Dalia "Gryphon_spirit" Di Giacomo