Album Review

Subsource – Generation Doom

• 27th Jul 2012

If I was to judge a book by its cover, or even a CD by its case, I would say Subsource were a slickly marketed college metal band. Although not far off, it doesn’t quite give them the credit they do deserve.

In the rise of artists such as Prodigy, Pendulum and Skrillex, who combine electronic dance music with more alternative metal and rock, that up and coming bands would follow suit. I never liked Pendulum, I think they are one of the most overrated acts of recent years, Skrillex similarly so, and Subsource have more in common with these two than the Prodigy (who I do like a bit).

The tracks are standard rock songs, very unexciting, but just with very polished electronic production over them, covering up the boring chord progressions and whiny vocals. Although hard hitting, and probably ferocious live, the songs still lack any backbone for me, and they are too heavily reliant on more recent dubstep (bro-step, if your American) that seems to be exploding in the States – it is not all about the drop.

However, I think they are probably better as a crossover act than they would be as either a metal act or electronic act, and they probably are very entertaining live, but to me it seems they are nothing new, or exciting, and too reliant on hiding the more musical elements of their sound behind production elements.

A weak debut that I predict won’t do that well commercially, as slowly but surely the dubstep/electro-metal fad is dying out, although I could just be out of the loop.