Rating:

(Red Ink, 2006) Mellowdrone is essentially a vehicle for guitarist/singer Jonathan Bates’ songs and artistic vision, rather like Nine Inch Nails is really just Trent Reznor. The only real difference is that although Bates writes all the music and lyrics, he allows other musicians to play on some of his songs. And it’s quite fitting that his group is formatted similarly to the industrial king, because Bates has clearly been influenced by Reznor’s music. In fact, the entirety of Box sounds like Bates has spent his entire life listening to Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, and very little else. There are the trademark driving beats, heavy guitars, electronic ambience…it’s all there. Not every song is a NIN rip-off; some of them are Depeche Mode copies. Bates even sounds quite a bit like David Gahan. The opening instrumental track, “C’mon Try A Little Bit,” could easily be Gravity Kills or Stabbing Westward, and while “Fashionably Uninvited” branches out into more traditional post-grunge, it’s not really any better. Frankly, very little of it is worthwhile, because when Bates does stumble upon a decent melody or instrumental line, he ruins it with his terrible lyrics and rhythmic phrasing. In the end, Mellowdrone is just like a poor-man’s VAST - an industrial/new wave/trip-hop act that never quite successfully replicates the original. There are a couple of pretty good tunes on the album, like “Oh My,” “Amazing,” and “Limb To Limb,” but it’s difficult to justify sorting through all the crap for such a small reward.

 1. C’mon Try A Little Bit

 2. Oh My

 3. Four Leaf Clover

 4. Fashionably Uninvited

 5. Beautiful Day

 6. Fuck It Man

 7. Whatever The Deal

 8. Madison

 9. And Repeat

10. Orange Marmalade

11. Amazing

12. Bone Marrow

13. Limb To Limb

Buy album

– Kevin

This 15-beetsreview was posted on April 10th, 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.