| Product: |
Don't Call Me Names - Guano Apes |
| Date: |
09/02/02 (198 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fantastic, varied sound, Refreshingly good female metal vocalist, Absolutely amazing live as well as recorded!
Disadvantages: None whatsoever!
Brilliant ? that is how I would generally describe the second album ('Don't Give Me Names') from the young German band, Guano Apes.
If you haven?t heard them before, don?t be put off by their European origins. Music itself is an international language, however the band writes and sings exclusively in English, and you wouldn?t know it wasn?t their native tongue from listening to them. Indeed, they put my GCSE German skills to shame!
I first heard the Guano Apes several years ago on an MTV rock show (a rare thing nowadays), and instantly liked them. Their songs have a heavy style to them, with some great metal riffs that provide excellent fodder for head banging to. However, they are not just about heavy music. The lead singer, Sandra Nasic has an exquisite singing voice, and puts it to excellent use. In truth, it was the amazing vocalist who first attracted me to the band. [No, not in THAT sense, but she is nice! ;-)] It is scarce these days that a metal band has a female vocalist who is not overtly feminist, exuding aggression and attitude. The other complaint often levelled at female metal vocalists is that they don?t know how to shout properly, and can?t sing heavy lyrics very well. Guess what? Sandra Nasic can shout with the best of them, and is only aggressive when the music demands it.
Several people consider Guano Apes to be a ?nu metal? band, and while this is technically correct (given they have only been around for a few years) I would tend to disagree. They are an awful lot more original than most nu metal bands today, their songs showing a great deal more variety than the likes of Korn, Coal Chamber, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, etc. (The seemingly endless list of ?jump on the rap-metal bandwagon? bands could go on, but I wouldn?t want to bore you too much?) Guano Apes also lack the other staple nu metal requisite ? they aren?t pretentious in the slightest, a fact that has earned them great respect from me
! Sandra has also been compared to both Skin (Skunk Anansie) and Gwen Stefani (No Doubt). God forbid that she ever sounds like either singer, as I greatly dislike both of them! No, please do not listen to anyone who compares this band to such ?pop? acts as these!
The first album, ?Proud Like a God?, featured some great metal anthems, but some said it felt a little disjointed. ?Don?t Give Me Names? has a fluidity that was lacking in the first record, and is all the better for it. It would seem that Guano Apes have found their own style, and now blend innovative guitar and bass riffs with powerful shouted choruses, soulful singing, and some provocative lyrics.
The album kicks off with four amazing, upbeat tracks: ?Innocent Greed?, ?No Speech?, ?Big In Japan? and ?Money & Milk?. (NB: Big in Japan is a cover. The original version was written by the new wave German band, Alphaville.) Each of these tracks is fairly heavy and fast-paced, but they have a great mix of other musical styles as well. No Speech and Big in Japan are two of the most infectious songs ever ? you?ll be singing them all day long!
?Living In A Lie? follows, and is probably one of my favourite songs of all time. It is the first slow song on the album, and is very powerful and soulful, with shades of melancholy and dignity about it. The next song, ?Dodel Up? then brilliantly counters the mood set up by the previous song. It is a particularly fun song, with some bizarre undertones. Sandra reliably informed the crowd at the recent Manchester gig that ?this song is about dicks!? Naturally, this led to some pretty funny onstage antics?
The rest of the album is made up of more great songs, all with different styles. ?I Want It? and ?Mine All Mine? are two more great rock anthems, whilst ?Gogan? is one of the heaviest, weirdest songs on the album. It is also the angriest! ?Too Close To Leave? almost has a funk/reggae feel to it, whereas ?Anne Claire? and ?He
aven? are what can only be described as ballads. It should be noted, however, that all of the tracks ? even the ?ballads? ? manage to incorporate some great, heavy guitar riffs!
The album comes in one of two forms: a standard jewel case, or a limited edition digipack featuring three bonus tracks. The bonus tracks are unplugged versions of Anne Claire and Living in a Lie, and a new track called ?Ain?t Got Time?, which displays some electronic influence, but is still a fantastic song. Both albums also contain a multimedia part, which contains bios of the band, the video for Big in Japan, and some novel photo shoots that allow you to gain an insight into the band.
In summary, I can?t recommend this band to you enough! There is not a single poor song on this album, and there should be something to satisfy every discerning rock/metal fan. Buy this album now ? you won?t regret it! Oh, and I am the spitting image of the guitarist, Henning. How freaky is that???
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