Drop Dead, Gorgeous – Worse Than A Fairy Tale

While I’ve never heard Drop Dead, Gorgeous’ debut, I never really had any interest in hearing it either. Despite never really hearing anything by them other than a select few songs on an occasional compilation CD here and there, I instinctively knew exactly what I’d get if I ever actually sat down and listened to them. You see, I knew they’d be the generic emo/screamo outfit simply by their name, their artwork and their overall persona. Their sophomore effort, Worse Than A Fairy Tale, created little to no interest for me either and when I finally did listen to it I knew my final verdict on the record within the first thirty seconds; and yes, my initial ideas concerning the band turned out to be exactly true.

Worse Than A Fairy Tale is just your generic screamo output that everyone’s heard oh so many times before. The album is fast and frantic with a sense of instability and intensity that is actually quite impressive and energizing; however, it’s still rather predictable and while you could see a crowd becoming fairly excited with the speed of the album, it’s not solid enough to warrant any real commendation. It’s a mix ofEmmure, Atreyu, Hawthorne Heights and other bands down that general alley. Heavy and fast but rather forgettable, there’s just nothing special there. On top of that Danny Stills’ vocals are rather weak throughout the album and become irritating fast. He switches tempos and speeds all too often without the needed skill to make it smooth. It seems chaotic and out of control, just like the music and it doesn’t flow.

Really, the best thing about the record was the prospect of an unique concept story line. The record supposedly tells the story of a deranged serial killer in a fake city known as Saylor Lake. Each song is a different murder and a look into the mind’s eye of the killer. Or, at least, that’s what it’s supposed to be. Because in all honesty, if I wasn’t forewarned that the record was about the serial killer, I would never have known. Reading the lyrics do little to tell the story of the serial killer. Instead they’re just the generic whiny emo lines like “the ocean pours from her eyes/ while the statues crumble aside/ and this city overrun with traffic/ is so over concentrated with this static/ and I scream/ and nobody listens/ and I scream/ yet everyone’s louder.”

Drop Dead, Gorgeous has really nothing to offer here. It’s decent background music but even that is giving the record a bit more credit than it deserves. One look at the band and you’ll know what to expect, so if you like the emo/screamo fade than you may enjoy it but there’s nothing new and chances are that you’ll bore of it soon enough. I know I did within the first few tracks.