Atom Seed - Get In Line

Band: Atom Seed
Album: Get In Line
Year: 1990
Style: Funky Metal
Similar Bands: Megadeth, Faith No More (barely)
"One-Word" Review: Screech-metal-funk-irritant
Based Out Of: London
Label: London, AAD, Heavy Metal Records Ltd

Get In Line Cover

Get In Line Inside Picture

Get In Line (1990)

1. What You Say - 3.15
2. Get In Line - 3.48
3. Rebel - 2.57
4. Shake That Thing - 3.24
5. Shot Down - 5.43
6. Forget It Joe - 2.477. Better Day - 3.19
8. What?! - 4.52
9. Castles In The Sky - 6.3110. Bitchin - 1.55

Album Rating (1-10):3.0

Members & Other Bands:Paul Cunningham - Vox
Simon James - Guitar (Zoodoll)
Chris Dale - Bass (Sack Trick, The Machine, Balance of Power)
Amir - Drums
Mark Flannery - Producer, Engineer @ Loco Studios, S. Whales
Sean Worrall / Marian Anthony - Artwork
David Roberts - Promotions

Unknown-ness: Not sure when or why I got this album. I just read a review that said they could never shake the Faith No More comparison, so perhaps that was why I got the album so long ago. It was probably in the same purchase along with Animal Bag. That said, I can only assume that they have the metal-funk sound. The jagged font and collage of screaming-face-artistic design leads me to think that it might be metal. Although the back of the CD reminds me of Neds Atomic Dustbin, which is more punk-rock.

Album Review: It begins with the sound of electricity powering up. Then it converges into a rhythmic drum beat. The lyrics begin: a terrible attempt of overlapping call and response Rap-Metal. I can see the FNM comparison, but just in idea, not even close in execution. The guitars sound like alarms, singular in sound and then the funky bass kicks in behind spoken lyrics. The next song begins with 4 loud fuzz-strums. Then the driving rumble force of guitars and spoken, barely melodic vocals accompany. The chorus has the rest of the band adding "Get In Line," (and later "Destroy") in loud chant. A brief guitar solo comes along in the middle, and the song charges along with more shout-screaming vocals from the lead and backup voices. Rebel is a catchy rush of a song, more rap-metal vocals accompany a funky metal base. Occasional breaks of time signature and yelps by the singer's vocals unfortunately take more away from the song than they add. A very quick, funky bass groove begins "Shake that Thing," demanding the listener to do just that. The lead guitar attempts to mimic the bass line and the energy is lost. I'm going to go out on a very thick, sturdy limb here and just state that the vocal style is terrible, nearly unlistenable. It sounds so forced, and just, awkward. Not to mention it rarely falls in tune with the music.

"Shot Down" begins as a slow, dirty-acoustic, inebriated crawl. It slowly picks up speed and aggression both musically and vocally. And then it ends in a sad, pathetic jam. Next "Forget it Joe" is a loud, funky metal-punk song, musically. The vocals stumble out of his mouth and the applied accent just messes everything up. As do his mis-placed screeches. "Better Day" is a quiet song, with non-strained light vocals whispering over a bluesy guitar. Gentle drums are added, as is a calm bass line. A false start supplied by the drums, (the song could pick up the pace, but it thankfully does not) and the song glides into a sad, emotional guitar solo. Then back into the bluesy verse to finish. It is nice to follow up the quiet with a nice loud, driving metal track and "What?!" begins like that. but the vocals, man, just...too bad. Suddenly just after 2 minutes, the vocals and music come together for a very catchy breakdown. It is positive in spirit, and very pleasant. This could be really good...But it goes back to the terrible shout & response chorus of "Quit It" and "What." "Castles in the Sky" is the longest track, and 40 seconds into it, it already feels long. The vocals are better: they are not as out of control and all over the place. And for the most part, it is composed of 2 parts: a driving, chugging guitar moving the song into the slower, progressive chorus, that rises and falls like a bumpy rollercoaster. A guitar solo finishes off the track, accenting the progressive rise and fall of the rhythm guitar chord changes, and ends in a fade. A quick in length and speed song, "Bitchin" ends the album with more rap-metal vocals over a driving guitar fueled song.

This was one of those albums that I (surprise!) did not like at all. I'm big on vocals, and for the most part that ruined the music to my ears. I can barely even consider this to be compared to FNM, but I guess it was trying to funk-a-fy metal. It failed terribly.

Stand Out Track:Better Day
Links:
Atom Seed Wikipedia
Atom Seed Allmusic
Atom Seed Myspace
Atom Seed Ex-Homepage (other links here)
Atom Seed Video
Atom Seed Metal-Archives
Atom Seed on Rock Detector
Sack Trick Myspace