Reviews

I Hate Sally

Don't Worry Lady

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Review Date: 2007-01-15

Well, one thing worth noting about the band I Hate Sally is that they are from Kingston, Ontario. This bears significance to me as it is the town I grew up in; however, these days I never really go there unless it’s Christmas.

This band is loud, and the interesting thing about the loud is that it’s a version of screamo that goes as far as metal. This is certainly an interesting album, I'm just not sure it was something that was made for me. Whether you’re from my hometown or not, you still have to step up to the plate and bat around before I can just hand you the MVP trophy, so there’s a saga to be had. Let’s see what happens.

I’ll start with "Song For Deborah." Yeah, I don't know what to tell you, really, because this song starts with a rather interesting guitar and drum combination. It’s pretty slow, kind of a low groove that builds up slowly. It does get harder and the guitar turns up the rock until about the one minute and thirty second mark, when shit cuts loose and you have this fucking angry girl screaming at you about God knows what. I can make out the words “Los Angeles”, so for whatever reason they are screaming about L.A. Whatever it is, they don't sound too happy about it.

The lead singer, as mentioned, is female, so perhaps the hook with I Hate Sally has is that they have a screamer and it’s a she. Her name is Dee Prescott and she is the focal point of the band. My thing with screamo, though, is that I have to see it live because there’s so much thrashing around and that works best live. I don't think I understand where the music comes from.

I suppose I just don't get screamo -- and for that matter, death metal -- at least at this point. "Iscah's Life" might by my favourite track on Don’t Worry Lady, and I say that because there are moments on the track where they actually play a pretty stellar mix of guitar and drums. Other than that it’s pretty much the same old drill: loud screaming that I can't make out the lyrics of, and music that is played very disruptively. They just don't have a flow until the music goes on its own. There are a few areas on this track where it’s pure guitar jamming and those are the best parts of the whole song. I think the screaming is the killer.

"Iscah's Cancer" is the song to follow "Iscah's Life." What I do like about this "Iscah's Cancer" is that it isn't almost nine minutes long, whereas "Iscah's Life" is. Overall though, I’d just like to see this band unwind for a minute or two, without any screaming or yelling or anger. There is just entirely too much anger floating around on this disc. This track makes me think they got all high on meth and played their instruments while Dee hit the record button. Since she doesn't sing a single thing on this song I am left to assume something happened to her.

In the press that I have about I Hate Sally, it says they played one important wedding and two unimportant ones. Now, I know the total is three weddings, but what kind of wedding has this music playing at it? Unreal! Although, I suppose it is better than the cheesy bullshit they normally play at weddings.

The ninth song is nine minutes long – well, it’s almost ten and it’s called "Anna's empty conscious for the blessed." I have decided this will be it for me with I Hate Sally. This song is so long it’s unreal. I couldn't believe that they had a song just under nine minutes, let alone one over it. Something that you may not know about a song this length in the death metal genre is that often it becomes hard for the singer to continue singing throughout the course of the song. Dee takes breaks on this one; there are often gaps that leave her resting on the sidelines while the band is jamming. I like this little sideline -- I mean, it’s obvious I just look for the escape from the screaming, but it’s not a bad little rock-out session. I'm sure if you were headbanging, then you would love it for certain.

As you can see, I have had better luck with albums that Dan has hooked me up with. To be honest, he handed me this one and it was still in the wrapper so he didn't have a clue what it was going to sound like. I suppose had he known he probably wouldn't have given it to anyone, because who other than me might like this album just a little bit?

Tracks to Hear: If you like death metal, all of them.

Where did I Hate Sally go wrong?

Do I think this is an album is something that would be more popular to metal crowds rather than me?

Score: 4.5

It’s hard for me to explain, but the instrumental portion of the album was totally okay. The band doesn't deserve ultimate failure just because I didn't dig the vocals. However, I did not really like a song at all; there were just parts of songs that I could stand. It’s just not what I'm looking for in an album.)

- Brandon