ALBUM REVIEW: Gawdzillionaire – Otherwise
Whatever the opinion on modern rock music, the market is simply saturated as bands and artists vie for listenership. Music nowadays needs to be memorable for all the right reasons for that fanbase to grow. Hoping to achieve just that, as well as take a slice of the lucrative pie, are OTHERWISE with their fifth album Gawdzillionaire.
With a solid foundation of touring with bands like DROWNING POOL, GODSMACK, and BUCKCHERRY, the Las Vegas quartet offer up 12 tracks of anthemic stadium rock. They get off to a good start with Full Disclosure, an in your face track boasting the fact “I ain’t like them other motherfuckers”. A hooky chorus sits on top of punchy riffs from Ryan Patrick and a typical beat from Joe Conner. Adrian Patrick’s verses have SHINEDOWN like qualities, especially within the scream towards the end, but we have to admit there’s something in this song falling just short of the mark.
This is a sentiment which carries on throughout the album. Exit Wound comes with a nice beat to two-step or head-bob to while the guitars nestle themselves in lower tones. Credit where it’s due, OTHERWISE sit very well within the lower registers. As the slower track winds up towards the chorus, it seems to lose momentum and not pack the punch it intended to. Ryan Patrick’s melodies are wonderfully constructed throughout the chorus but Exit Wound fizzles out rather than pops. For a song which supposedly speaks about the aftermath of depression, that message is poorly executed to the point we don’t pick up on that theme at all.
Next, New Way To Hate picks up the pace. It’s remarkably refreshing to have a song about the mainstream media’s fear mongering without the stereotypical dial-up modem noises. That doesn’t mean electronics are omitted entirely. They take centre-stage on a chorus which errs on the side of too slow and kills the momentum of a track which states “the world keeps teaching me a new way to hate”, although the chug of the guitars sits wonderfully within the venom-filled verses and we feel this should have been capitalised on.
The populace has differing opinions on the concept of failure. Many believe it’s a bad thing and should be avoided while others think it should be embraced and learned from. Sitting on the former end of that statement comes Failure. The ethos of “failure is not an option” is an admirable one and one which is repeated several times, perhaps to the detriment of the song as the child vocals sit uncomfortably after a while. However to have that sentiment, the song behind it needs to make that statement and do it convincingly. A faster vocal delivery which pushes the idea-driven mind is a vast improvement. Much like its two predecessors, Failure is a catchy song while it’s being listened to but there isn’t enough there to light the spark of memorability.
Albums depend on that spark otherwise they’re dead in the water before they have a chance to really do anything. OTHERWISE time and again try to ignite it by commenting on social themes such as the American Dream in the opening track or corporate America in Coffins. There is a lot to say on both topics but it’s hard to contribute to that conversation if there’s nothing new being brought to the table. The aforementioned Coffins is an interesting one as it addresses the notion that we’re unable to take our money with us when we die – “Coffins don’t come with pockets” to be exact. Yet the execution isn’t favourable. The chorus again slows to introduce an element of keys, making what could have been a hard-hitting highlight a lot more whimsical than it needed to be. This jarring effect carries on into OTHERWISE wanting to bring a harsher interlude later on into the track but it just connotes confusion rather than contempt towards a money-centric society.
Moving into the second half of the album, there’s still very little for us to remember. Nick Bedrosian’s bassline in the opening to Hollywood Minute lines up the promise of having a somewhat midline highlight. Yet it just doesn’t come. It does visit us with the title track however. Ominous guitars featuring a wonderful buzz on the deeper notes build atmosphere for the anthemic number OTHERWISE have been looking for. EKOH’s guest feature in the second verse is full to the brim of boast rap energy. Then it stops. A strange moment featuring keys in the last 30 seconds of the song doesn’t add anything. Rather it subtracts. Yes, it could feed into the ballad La Familia, which comes with a mixed message of its own, but it doesn’t connect with us how it perhaps should have.
The second feature comes from Heidi Shepherd (BUTCHER BABIES) on the horror inspired Paradise. For the most part, this is a good track and could be considered a highlight on an album which admittedly doesn’t connect. Ryan Patrick is finally able to show off his technical prowess with rampant riffs hiding in the first chorus and into the slower guitar melody in the interim. Paradise does slip into a harsher bridge later on but again the perfect execution evades them.
Sadly, Gawdzillionaire loses all steam in its final three tracks. While it houses excellent guitar runs in the latter half instrumental, Exorcism floats past like a benevolent phantom. The bouncing riff of Camouflage again slows needlessly in an attempt to mimic a call and response chorus while the cover of BLIND MELON’s No Rain does very little to dry up the rain on this parade.
As we mentioned at the top of the review, the rock market is incredibly saturated at the moment. OTHERWISE don’t rank very high in terms of jockeying for position. While there are one or two moments which give this band a lot of potential, they aren’t capitalised on in the way we had hoped. Gawdzillionaire remains frustratingly forgettable to that end.
Rating: 4/10
Gawdzillionaire is out now via Mascot Label Group.
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