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Band Name: Cerebral Noize
Demo Title: Process Band Members: Cale Burr (vocals, percussion, guitars, keyboard, and other miscellaneous noises), Steve Egan (fretless bass), and guest musicians Anne Mathews, Grey Proctor, Dave Priban, Micah Burr, and Rosheen Bishop Location: Bellevue, WA Rating: 1 Skull
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Jotun's Review:
To begin, it must be said that after looking through this "band's" web site (and additionally through the creator's portfolio, wedding pictures, resume, bio, and favorite CD lists from the past 20+ years, I am finding it hard to keep in the mood I was in when I listened to Process by Cerebral Noize. This guy seems to be a decent, hard-working guy. He has a number of talents and pursues music as a side project to his full-time work as a graphic artist. He kinda reminds me of myself in that way - full-time newspaper editor who freelances as a reviewer because he loves all kinds of music. But then sense grabbed a hold of me and said, "Yeah, he seems nice, but your job is to review that CD that was driving you nuts earlier." So that is what I am now going to do.See, the album Process (and the process by which Process was created) is best described by the creator himself. He says, "the elaborate music of Cerebral Noize is a seemingly ridiculous, yet somehow tasty hybrid of metal and punk rock sprinkled mixed with sprinklings of other eclectic influences." Sprinklings? Next, Burr describes how he became involved in music: "Cerebral Noize really began in 1991 when friend Lonni Bopp showed Cale Burr how to play a power chord. The band (or non-band) would take on various forms and names over the years that followed. In October 1994, fresh out of college with a Bachelors degree in Visual Communication, Cale purchased his first Macintosh computer. It didn't take long for him to realize that it was the key that would make recording a CD possible. Frustrated by his inability to find the right members to maintain a full band, Cale decided that he would record a CD by himself."
This is really a recipe for disaster. The album really is an amalgam of all kinds of influences, with each individual track lacking direction and, therefore, making the overall message of the music indecipherable. I hear punk, hardcore, power metal, goth metal, thrash, Pink Floyd (?), and a host of other influences. On Burr's "Best of 2003" list, he favors bands such as Children of Bodom, Strapping Young Lad, The Exploited, Shakira, Raunchy, and more - each of which I can hear in one form or another in Process . . . all except for Shakira, that is.
Poor production continues to hinder the album even further, giving an overall feel of an 80s-rejected fantasy/sci-fi movie soundtrack. The only track that comes even close to being redeeming is "Nature of Evil," which is much shorter than the other drawn-out tracks and has an interesting black metal sound. But overall, the only other possible redeeming factors are elementary (such as being a solid guitar player, though not a creative songwriter) and hardly worth mentioning just to draw away from all the negativity.
Sorry bro, but the music isn't very good at all - particularly since you say it took eight years to come up with. Best of luck to you and your career. Readers, music lovers - skip this one. For a sample, you can stream each song from the album on the band's site.
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