By
Adam Pugh
Skrape
New Killer America
(RCA)
Grade: C
Maybe Skrape should outright have become a cover band, because it's just not nice to steal.
New Killer America is the debut album of yet another "new metal" band. Utilizing the same cookie-cutter format molded by Korn, the Deftones and Staind, Skrape has managed to produce an album that is wholly unoriginal.
With an emphasis on the low-end guitars and repetitious two-chord lines, Skrape tries pretend that it has made something new. In reality, it has ripped off the vocals of Chino Moreno from the Deftones and shamelessly stolen Korn's guitarists.
The music, despite its "borrowed" status, is very well done, incorporating punchy rhythms and exhilarating screams. The vocals are clean, something which makes the band sound great, but each song sounds like a band we've all heard before.
In general, a lot of recently released music has possessed very angry and anti-social themes. It seems as though the members of Skrape sat in their rooms, listened to their favorite CDs and then remade them into their own album.
The only real entertaining part of the CD is in the packaging - containing fun stickers with pictures of packaged meat, dead animals and, of course, the beautiful cover picture of a fingernail that looks like it will break off at any moment.
With songs on the album such as "Waste" and "Broken Knees," obviously the band's sound and message is a bit on the negative side - but you would be mad too if you couldn't come up with anything original.
