This Is Menace
No End In Sight

Never heard of them? I don't believe it. Surely you all have lived quite well without them, yet, wanting to write a review on DeBaser and choosing not to review albums that have already been reviewed, I present to you with my very modest musical cultural background, This is menace, these unknowns.

Perhaps to feed the ego of the mastermind Jason Bowld, this project is flooding YouTube with videos including drum cam footage, but a listen to the debut album "No End in Sight" will give hardcore metal enthusiasts yet another band on which to vent their hatred of the nu and maybe, to the genre lovers (hardcore?metalcore?), a few minutes of pleasant listening.

Adding to the category of so-called supergroups, so-called because they feature more or less known personalities in the music arena, but which do not contribute any transcendental music and often and willingly represent simply attempts to energize and introduce something new into the music market.

But this project has something original. And the aforementioned Jason Bowld has gathered rather important names in the alternative scene, precisely that Jason Bowld, whom some of you surely could recognize either from his past with Pitchshifter or as a spokesperson for Roland's electronic drums.

Along with his partner Mark Clayden on bass, they represent the core of this project, which includes practically a different vocalist for each track on the CD. Among others, there are contributions from Casey Chaos (Amen) in the metal-punk track "Incite" and Jeff Walker (Carcass) in the heavier "Onward Christian Soldiers".

The uniqueness of this project also lies in the versatility demonstrated by the two; Bowld also engages as a guitarist and vocalist, alongside Clayden, as seen in the concluding (and vaguely soulfly) "Displacement" where they both show their skills as inspired multi-instrumentalists, recording the parts for guitar, bass, vocals, and drums.

Coming to the album, the result is a decent alternative metal, which should make the diversity of the tracks its strength, since the influences of the guest vocalists have a big impact, alternating screams, clean vocal parts, no growls, drum parts essentially alien from the usual, excessive double bass usage, favoring more imaginative and percussive patterns, as seen for example in the almost identical intros of the opener "Deadman" and "Predisposed", with respectively Colin Doran (Hundred Reason) and Justin Hill (SikTh) on vocals, which then become, if they weren't so similar, the best episodes of the album along with "The nameless" with Paul McCallion (Hiding Place) alternating screams and clean melodic parts.

Though colored by the uniqueness and variety it owes to the collaborations, this supergroup lacks a bit of real depth, nothing to say about the musicians in terms of wanting to provide something different; I find a certain passion in their approach to music through multi-instrumentalism, which is sometimes genius, sometimes just a very pronounced and exhibited ego, almost always a frantic passion. For this reason, I feel like recommending this "No end in sight" by This is menace, at least for a listen, as it has yet to be featured among the reviews on DeBaser.

They won't change your life, but if you have money to spend, I believe it can enrich your music collection with something different.