Majority Of One - Number One Son

So here I sit, casting my mind back to 2001 and the heavily volatile world of nu-metal. The genre was being define by pop happy bands and skewing what nu-metal was.

The genre should have been thought of as melodic metal, with heavy power riffs and a good mix of heavy vocals and softer singing with a fair share of DJing thrown in.

Instead it was warped in with an influx of pop laden rap rock and the genre of nu-metal ...
...describing bands like Number One Son as nu-metal. In essence they are but to the masses they're not. Hopefully this will shed some light onto what the bands were actually doing on their first album.

Coming in at 43:44, Number One Son led a pretty nice legnth debut out there.

TRACKS (12)

CONTRASTS (2:52)

A quiet start with cymbols, a tad bass and a quiet guitar medley leads into the typical ... more

So here I sit, casting my mind back to 2001 and the heavily volatile world of nu-metal. The genre was being define by pop happy bands and skewing what nu-metal was.

The genre should have been thought of as melodic metal, with heavy power riffs and a good mix of heavy vocals and softer singing with a fair share of DJing thrown in.

Instead it was warped in with an influx of pop laden rap rock and the genre of nu-metal was lost for ever. Thats why I feel bad for describing bands like Number One Son as nu-metal. In essence they are but to the masses they're not. Hopefully this will shed some light onto what the bands were actually doing on their first album.

Coming in at 43:44, Number One Son led a pretty nice legnth debut out there.

TRACKS (12)

CONTRASTS (2:52)

A quiet start with cymbols, a tad bass and a quiet guitar medley leads into the typical rapping that is accepting from a "pop" nu-metal album. However it pushes it so much further than this with a real skill of track building and when the singing kicks it, it gives a memorable chorus, if not for the words but for the tune. The heaviness of this track is not overpowering but yet is enough for you to be reaching for the volume control. It leads very distinctive vocals into your lobes and throws some very heavy bass into the mix giving you a good, short, pre-cursor to the album.

HOURGLASS (3:42)

The single from the album starts us off with another understated start with a little power of a riff. Nothing special on the playing front but its heavy and charging in the way that "A" never were. The vocals start sung and lead into an intense chorus that flirts on the screamed side but still stays soft enough to make out. A strong bass line can still be found, especially on breaks. A simply feel continues through this song. Its never too busy. Its a clear bass, guitar, drums and vocal throw around. Again, it has parralels to "A" but always so much better.

SIGNATURE (4:33)

Low frequency bass and a tad of guitar trickles in a few seconds to open this one before all hell is broken loose and a great bass charge is taken to you. Singing and "rap" (the rap is the nu-metal style of rap you're used to) is brought to you. In the chorus of this one it is knocked up a notch. An intense semi-scream takes you into a gorgeous mix of vocals and extra screaming. The guitar work almost takes on a slap bass quality as the chorus bleeds out into the heavy bass riff again. A nice break takes us into a slow down with long drawn out riffs backing up the continuing heavy bass lines, driving vocals in a semi-scream rap like manor take us into a relaxing break from the heaviness. The song starts to float around nicely, giving those on the dance floor time to sweat, smile and get ready for the next explosion of bass.

BECOMING (4:28)

One of my personal favourites on the album. This is where Nic (vocals) shows his real flair for screaming and then dropping back into a nice tune. With the money that this album was made on, you know very little digital touch up work was done. This song only drops down from its blistering speed now and again to allow haunting vocals to take over. Soon its back up to its speed. The guitar work isn't all that great but this song is sing along tastic for your metal club fan.

NOT ME (3:36)

A bass line and some keyboards start us off in this one. Alas the album has started to sound very similar by this point. Not bad, but similar. A scream flies across your ears for a few seconds as heavy heavy riffs start and fade away for sung vocals and silky bass. Then the real skill of a vocalist is shown as he quickly flips from screaming one word to singing a sentence to screaming again. This trend is followed through the album. The guitar work is catchy. The song ends in a jump-tastic guitar vs vocals fight that should have had venues across this country bouncing their hearts out. Alas this is not the strongest song on the album and shows the samey aspect that I was worried about.

INSIDE I DIVIDE (3:01)

A dragged back (rewound) CD/Vinyl starts us off which is then thrown into a great drum vs bass combo. Its very groovy and heavy laden all the way. The guitar kicking in just gives a more intense feel to it all. The layers of sound are let down when the songs slows majorly to allow the vocals to kick in. Even when this track tries again to be heavy the vocals don't work with the music and the time sig changes are too all over the place. The song doesn't work much for me. I just feel I'm dissapointed with its standard compared with the previous tracks

REVER TO TYPE (4:10)

A Korn like starter to this one luckily soon dispells that. With very heavy screaming coming over. This drops away to allow for semi-singing semi-rapping to take over. This song is very dependant on the bass drum and luckily its done well. The guitars are too overstated for the simple riff they're playing. Unfortunately its not reverting to type so much as sticking with the below standard of the previous song. It has moments of skill but also has moments of cringe worthy tedium. This is the nu-metal I didn't want this album to be

INSERT (2:05)

An odd start as many noises are thrown all over from left to right and a soft guitar riff takes us into a chill happy bass and drum line. A nice rest from vocals as we're allowed to sway through the slowness of Insert. Its not a classic but its a very nice chilled out breather.

THIS TIME AROUND (3:45)

In a complete contrast to the last thing we're thrown straight into a nu-metal style scream and fuzzy guitars. This continues for around 40 seconds before a quick break down before launching straight back into a similar power riff. This song takes a couple of breathers through it but generally stays on the same 1+1=2 formula throughout. Its nice enough but easy to forget.

BITTER PILL (4:37)

A good mix, sometimes layered, of singing, screaming and rap. This one doesn't have the best guitar work done on it but is a good vocal experience. The song does manage to charge through it. The drumming gets lost because its just not good enough to make an impact. The bass also seems to fall away from this song, which is odd as all through the album bass has been very important. At this point in the album though tracks have started blending one into another and the originality that was felt at the start of the album is starting to become annoying repetative.

THE CLIQUE (4:34)

Heavy, fast, more heavy, lots of snare. Grrrrr! Thats the first impression you're gonna get of this one. Its screamed at you with venom that must hurt the throat. A lot of snare and a lot of overdrived guitars make up this whole track. Overtones of Rage Against the Machine creep into this one, not obviously but if you find yourself in a club singing along you'll be doing it in the same way that you used to to Rage. This track is nothing special but oddly can get some crazy singing along, lots of disagreeing and agreeing with the arms and twisted faces whilst screaming along. Heavier than your average bear, its a nice up-turn to the album

A MOMENT (2:17)

The final track starts us off nice and slow witha chilly bass line and soft drum playing and it won't get any bigger than that. A vocal line that echoes of the "Fallen To" acoustic CD this song is lovely. It flows over you in a way you know that its metal but its soft and relaxing and not heavy in any way shape or form. A real nice end to an album that has been plagued by songs that run together, this one splts them up nicely. Shame it splits them up from the end of the CD.

VERDICT

This album feels like you've been listening for no time at all yet listening forever. Because so many of the tracks are so similar it is hard to tell anyone which ones you really love because you'll end up thinking "oh, you know, that one" and then thinking "oh god which one was it, I have no idea" and thats where the album falls down. Its just too similar to itself

It differs from what else was going on at the time in metal and it tried to stand alongside some of the less mainstream artists such as Ultraspank, Fallen To and Earthtone 9 to name but a few instead of standing against the chart success of Linkin Park and Papa Roach.

In that respect its done very well, its a good album. Infact I have a wry smile everytime I listen to this album. For some reason I know all the words with ease and know when to scream and when to sing. No embarressing moments on the dance floor when kicking in too early (oh how rammstein have got me on that a time or two).

Number One Son are (were) a good, solid band. Its just a shame on this first effort that they seemed to only be able to write one track, 10 times (2 of the tracks being wildly different)

A good effort, well worth a listen. 

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