D-Generation

Cianan, May 1st, 2007 And their thought process was? Seriously, what a waste of talent! The debut showed massive amounts of promise, but this? The debut had amazing riffs, solos, decent vocals, blazing drum work, and a minimal amount of keyboard usage and this album is practically a complete 180 so to speak. Well, I’m going to start off by saying that this is pretty much flower metal, honestly. The debut was borderline, but this just jumped into the meadow. The keyboard usage was at a minimum on the debut and the small usage still had a “futuristic” atmosphere, but on “D-Generation” the keyboards take the front seat! Annoying little samples of explosions, campy laser blasts, and other pointless samples populate many of the songs and even manage to ruin a few. The lyrics on “D-Generation” are much more science fiction orientated than on the debut, and aren’t terribly bad and unfortunately blend in with the keyboard love fest. The guitars take a back seat completely. They are slower, mellower, and the solos are slower and completely boring. You know maybe they were trying to make a soundtrack with metal elements, which would bring a little bit of an explanation to what happened here. The drums, though a bit more tame can still be heard beating away, and I think replaced the guitars as the foundation for the music. Perardi’s vocals are another story. I must say I think they have improved a little from the debut and are about the only thing that remains the same from the debut to “D-Generation”. Then we have the most horrifying, and by far the most annoying this album has to offer. Apart from Perardi’s vocals there are backup vocalists (the rest of the band I presume) and they are f**king acting like the Backstreet Boys, poppy as can be! It is absolutely without a doubt repulsive, and if the keyboards don’t ruin the songs these vocals do. I should’ve have thought of this, they were present (nowhere as much and nowhere as gay, but they were there), but I thought nah Airborn wouldn’t succumb to such wankery, heh looks like I was wrong. There are some good things that rise from the space debris that was Airborn. A few of the songs still seem like there is some pure metal left in Airborn. “Crystal Skulls” is a somewhat of a return to the debut with the best (still mellow) solo on the album. “Firestorm” opens with an intro that makes you think, “The metal has arrived!” but then turns into a Backstreet Boys extravaganza. “Heavy Metal Wars” has a decent solo on it, but it still fails due to the annoying backing vocals. The best song is by far the title track. Now don’t get me wrong I do like keyboards in music and the title track, “D-Generation” is a great example. By far the best song on the album, the title track is an instrumental which lets the guitars breathe and go back to where the riffs reigned supreme back in the days of the debut. They keyboards found here are actually good and so is the drum work which pumps the song along. I do miss Perardi’s vocals, as had he song (without the annoying backup vocals), it could’ve made the album a little bet better. This album was a complete let down, and I’m still bummed out to this day. This album only contains two good things the fast drumming and Perardi’s vocals. On my review for the debut I said Airborn was like a faster Fairyland, but this album is nothing like it, its flower metal that tries to be epic in a Sci-fi way and fails. The funny thing is, the band even acknowledges that they f**ked up here, and right they are. I recommended the debut, but not this album. Luckily the band promises their third album will be much different and more in the direction of the debut.