Skip The Foreplay – Nightlife

I suppose it was only a matter of time before the dubious offspring of the electronic world, dubstep, made its way into the world of pop aimed metalcore, but Montreal’s Skip The Foreplay has done just that.  I’ll admit, I don’t know the first thing about quality control in the genre, and that the only reason for my encounter is because of the band’s association with Epitaph Records.  I really have no authority to comment, so at the very most this review will serve as the opinion of an outsider with at best a modest exposure to the electronic/dance/metalcore scene.

For those who have kept up with Epitaph’s metalcore offerings, Nightlife won’t come as that much of a surprise.  Alesiana, Falling In Reverse, Parkway Drive, Bring Me the Horizon – there’s a little of each of these lurking somewhere.  To be sure, it sounds like one of the more sonically assaultive of the bunch, and definitely follows Parkway Drive in that regard, but there’s a whole whack of everything mashed together.  For instance, “Don Parignon” cycles between club-thumping pop and crushing metalcore under layers of reverberant drum patterns.  Vocalist “Fillion” unleashes round upon round of guttural bellows, raising to a shrill screech and back again without as much as a breath.  It all sounds pretty standard to my ears, feeling mostly like a reflection of whatever the kids are picking up at Hot Topic these days more than anything that will stand the test of time.

Only the band’s Iron Maiden inspired solos ever peaked my interest.  As someone who enjoys unwinding with some Dragon Force from time to time, the frantic finger work featured in the concluding solo of “Dom Perignon” and closing bridge of album closer “Champaign Showers” were welcome diversions.  Still, they’re presented as occasional bonuses more than a feature presentation, thus hardly offer a sufficient case for buying into Skip The Foreplay on its own.

Some might point out that Nightlife pulls off its genre hybridization fairly well, and to that end I won’t disagree.  There’s always something going on and the style transitions usually meld into one another quite smoothly.  But such recognition still doesn’t bestow any personal satisfaction or create the sort of instant connection between myself and Skip The Foreplay that would inspire me to play Nightlife by choice.  I’ll leave this for the floors of black-lit dancehalls and neon-splattered nightclubs and keep my iPod clear.