Wrestling
Ride on Freaks

Finns doing some wrestling and music, their debut album cannot really be said to be made for those into the fine arts. And what about the name, why do you call a band Wrestling? They are not really into wrestling-like lyrics; one of the tracks deals with that subject as far as I can tell. Ride on Freaks is the name of this debut album that is being described by the label as old school heavy metal and compared with the likes of Accept and Ozzy Osbourne, that doesn’t sound too exciting. Another thing that strikes me is that the cover is pretty boring, they could have used the artwork that was for the Lizzies album I reviewed yesterday, it is a bit wrestly. But enough backgrounds and artworks, lets look at what the album really has to offer.

The music is pretty incoherent and takes inspirations from many areas like said heavy metal but also punk, thrash, speed, the darker things as well as pop and that sort of thing. It is hard to see a clear direction in the band’s musical craft, it sprawls in many directions and many times it doesn’t make much sense. The vocals are really poor as well, they do not work for much of this album and I cannot say that I am overly impressed with the sound either. At least you could claim that there is variation through the album, but you can also add that it is way too long with a fifty minute playing time and an incoherent feel to it.

I am not impressed with what I hear and I find my mind wandering away from the Wrestling and into other realms of thought. There are some decent passages here and there but overall there isn’t much about this album, it feels like kind of a waste and I am inclined to agree with other reviews that I have read around the web – it isn’t a good album and it would be wiser to spend time investigating something more interesting than this. This band really needs to find something more than this, their music needs a direction, and they either need to use the vocals to their advantage or find a new vocalist. They really need to change most of what they do if they want to make music that feels more relevant and interesting.

This is an album to dismiss; it offers nothing you can’t do without. It is probably as interesting as watching paint dry or as great as a trip to LV426 or something like that. That means I am not impressed by what I have heard when playing through this album several times, in fact I think it has been slightly torturous to play this album. The short and simple conclusion to this review is that Ride on Freaks isn’t a very good album.

HHHHHHH