Wilytank Although people have told me it's healthier to not have an elitist sense of metal superiority, it's hard not to give the middle finger to many of the designated "mallcore" acts out there. Make Me Famous is the latest iteration of fresh new mallcore material to satiate the mallcore fans who believe that it isn't trendy enough to like Asking Alexandria or A Day to Remember anymore, or rather Attack Attack! since Make Me Famous wants to work off the trancecore angle Attack Attack! were using.

As most of you know now, the term "mallcore" is used mainly as a derogatory term. Unfortunately, Make Me Famous makes absolutely no effort shed the cliches that defined the derogatory term. They've got a stupid band name; stupid song titles like "Blind Date 101", "This Song Is Blacker Than Black Metal" (your fellow countrymen Nokturnal Mortum and Drudkh would like a word with you), "Once You Killed A Cow, You Gotta Make A Burger", "ifyuocnaraedtihsmkaemeasnadwich"; and that stereotypical look the band members have: straightened hair, revealing shirts, and skinny jeans.

Actually, if I didn't notice the different band name, I'd say 'It's Now or Never' is actually Attack Attack!'s newest album, failing to realize that Attack Attack! released an album in 2012 as well. So much got carried over that the only real distinction that Make Me Famous has is that the lyrics in 'It's Now or Never' are WORSE than Attack Attack!'s lyrics ever were. They still read like angst-ridden love letters, but Attack Attack! looks incredibly mellow in comparison to Make Me Famous' approach: every song's lyrics here is basically the same message as "You made me feel bad! Now I kill you, bitch!" If there's something I hate as much as angst-ridden lyrics, it's pseudo tough guy lyrics; and combining the two does not make either of them more bearable. As for the delivery, there's nothing that makes Make Me Famous special here. The vocalist mixes guttural harsh vocals with clean vocals that sound like he tried to audition for High School Musical. Musically, there's no outstanding qualities here. Lots of repeated chugging on one note, faster (mostly mid-paced) sections that aren't any more impressing, and overuse of that damn keyboard!

And the worst thing about having these electronic influences it that they almost fucking work! I've been impressed by a good amount of the material that Japanese melodic trance death metal act Blood Stain Child has put out as well as the Russian industrial metal/electronic/ambient project Senmuth's EBM material. But even in the metalcore setting, there's also Born of Osiris, who have put a decent amount of attention in the guitar work to make the keyboard use seem acceptable; having them not sound like a rave party also helps. The keyboards should be used as a booster for the music's atmosphere, not an accessory to wave around like your "swag".

At the end of the day, we have a very big mess of an album here. 'It's Now or Never' is not worth a damn to check out, and the only reason why I'm not putting it in the bottom tier of my ranking system is that it almost worked. But there's just way too many things wrong with it to justify giving it any proper praise.

Time Signature It's nothing but a waste of time...

Genre: bubblegumcore

Make Me Famous is a Ukrainian modern metalcore band and It's Now or Never is their debut. Heralded as an amazing album, It's Now Or Never features a musical style that takes deathcore and metalcore as its starting point, utilizing the grooves and breakdowns typical of that stylistic universe. But metalcore is essentially only 50% of the style. The other half is basically imported from the universe of Euro-dance electro-pop.

While I can live with the metalcore and deathcore elements (hell, a lot of the riffs, breakdowns and technical runs up and down the fretboard every now and then actually sound pretty cool), the electro-pop elements just do not appeal to me at all. My problem is that the pop-aspect of this album is imported from a branch of pop music that I and, I reckon, most metalheads and rock fans of my generation absolutely despise. The album is simply, to my ears, melodic metalcore smeared with a smattering of plastic pop effects and synths along with the pop choruses and overcooked vocal harmonies.

As mentioned, I do like some of the metallic elements and metalcore elements on the album. However, I must also say that I think that Make Me Famous overuse these, and thus also the metalcore side the album strikes me as being a bit of a mess with a bucketful of different extreme metal vocal types popping up side by side with the clean pop melodies. Also many of the breakdowns and riffs are so metalcore it hurts, plus the band take all the other cliches of metalcore and basically whip them to death through overuse.

Let it be known that, as musicians, Make Me Famous are obviously very skilled and they know their ways around their instruments, and they know how to write music which is melodic and catchy. The music they make simply does not appeal at all to me. I can imagine how it would appeal to fans of Sonic Syndicate, Dead By April, The Browning, Anime Fire and the like. If you are into that type of music, I recommend that you check out Make Me Famous' It's Now or Never and judge for yourself and you will probably find that you like it, but if you're an old grumpy asshole like me, you're better off listening to an old Slayer album or something like that.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)