Here we are with another long awaited pre-order. Blind Channel are more or less my number 1 favourite band since I discovered them through Eurovision 2021 (funny – when I checked out Dark Side beforehand, I called them a cute lil copy of Linkin Park that wouldn’t make it into the final. I was so wrong…). So it’s not a big surprise that I had their new album EXIT EMOTIONS pre-ordered. This time, our vinyl arrived on time. Let’s have a look at the album.
General
I have to start with an overall word. I guess the following words might partly sound rather harsh, given that actually I like this album a damn lot. That’s kinda hilarous. But while I love Blind Channel and their music dearly, I am also often very critical of them because I think in some aspects they could still do better. Whatever I might criticise is meant in an affectionate way. I love them to the moon and back, but truth is also that for example Niko is not as much of a lyrical mastermind as people tend to say and some of their lyrics can be kinda shallow.
Generally, there are two things that bother me about this album. The first thing is something that bothers me about every single album of this band: the length. Why on earth can’t they make an album that is longer than 35 minutes? That’s also meant in an affectionate way because excuse me, I’d love to have MORE of your music. (Also I am kinda sad that most songs are fairly short, the songs are hardly any longer than 3 minutes and while I personally think that’s to keep them spotify-able and maximise the financial outcome of music streaming, it also leads – in my very personal opinion – to some of their songs being rushed. I personally would love a badass guitar solo, but whenever there’s the slightest idea of a guitar solo, it lasts … maximum 10 seconds. Not my idea of a solo.)
The second thing is especially obvious when you compare this review to those I wrote about other albums: There’s hardly any outstanding instrumental part here. Blind Channel manage to keep their albums a good mix. So while I couldn’t put my love for the guitar parts on ILLUMISHADE’s Another Side Of You into words, there’s hardly as much praise I could say about any instrumentals on this album. My praise will mostly – or exclusively – belong to the vocals I guess. And I personally wish that they would give their individual talents more time to shine.
Oh and one more thing: I guess one could say that the entire album sounds a bit … Americanised? Not very surprising though, given that they worked with a dude who’s been writing songs with bands like Three Days Grace, Ice Nine Kills or Motionless in White. One can hear that.
The songs
The album starts with a song called Where’s the Exit, that enters the stage with an iconic line that might be one of my favourites on this album: „This life is what you fake it“ If I still had MSN messenger, this line would be my status I guess. Now I suppose WhatsApp will have to deal with it. The song generally is very melodic, but to me almost sounds a little generic.
DEADZONE had been released as a single before and it was heavily promoted by the band. That’s a thing I personally don’t really understand that much – generally I like the song, but I think there are a lot of stronger songs on the album. It’s definitely not my favourite. The chorus is very melodic and easy to sing along, so it’ll probably be a good live song, but I’m almost annoyed by it by now, given how much it was promoted by the band. And the fans. And the reason why I am so annoyed by this is that no such promo happened for a single that I personally liked a lot more.
Wolves in California includes ,y stereotypical misheard lyrics of this album. On each Blind Channel song there’s some line I misunderstood and where I just can’t unhear my misunderstanding (the first time I heard Balboa, I heard the first line as „I’m a king kong in bed“). Now in this song I heard „Everybody tried to warn ya, now there’s OC California“ and the funniest part is that the largest part of the Blind Channel fandom would probably not even understand that, because OC California is so old that a majority of BC fans were either not even born, or just learned walking when it was running on TV. Anyway, the beginning is very rappish and they somehow got back to their „we sound like Linkin Park“ sound. Which is nice for Niko, but I thought they were over it. But then again … guess they’re going for some real Nu Metal sound. I like the vocals in the chorus, especially Joel’s. And I like the guitars.
I was waiting so damn much for XOXO since the tracklist for the album had been released and I read that it’s a feature with From Ashes To New. Too bad, because this fact turned this song into my personal disappointment of this album. I had very high expectations in this song and well … yeah, the feature is very evident. Very evident as in „sounds more like a FATN song than BC“. This is another song that gives me a strong „sounds like Linkin Park“-vibe, which matches FATN, but as I said earlier – I thought BC were over it. And for me it’s kinda sad when the featured band seems stronger in a feature than the featuring song. Oh and at the very beginning of the song I was utterly surprised because not gonna lie – I first thought I had a new song by Poppy in my release radar. The „I’ma love you with I love you too“ sounds so Poppy-ish to me. But once again, the song has great guitars (the entire album in general, but as I said: I wish they would stand out more. Give Joonas more time to shine.)
Keeping it surreal first reminded me a lot of a different artist, but I still haven’t figured out who. It’s not like it doesn’t sound like Blind Channel, but it also sounds like someone else I guess. The song is very melodic and super nice to vibe along. I love the vocals, especially Joel’s chorus. Generally speaking, I think Joel does an absolutely great job on this album. Especially given that he has mentioned quite a few times by now that he never saw himself as a singer. He’s been doing a great job here. Oh and I absolutely love the lyrics of this song. This might be a favourite.
Before Die Another Day was released, I was a little scared. I read that it was featuring Røry, and my only connection to her so far was a song she made with Alex Mattson where I didn’t like her vocals at all. I wasn’t a big fan of the sound of her voice, so I was worried. When the song came out, I was blown away though. It turned out to be a super strong feature and I like her vocals a lot. The song is absolutely touching and when it came out I was in a very dark phase. Hard to believe how uplifting this song is, despite the almost depressing lyrics. I guess it’s because they are so damn relatable. And this song sounds like it was made for being played on vinyl – it sounds absolutely amazing!
Here’s my first favourite song on this album: Phobia. The lyrics are amazing and very relatable for someone suffering from anxiety. They really hit close to home. Both Joel and Niko have strong vocal parts in this one and the melody is absolutely beautiful. Actually I expect myself to cry my eyes out when I hear this song played live. And I love the guitar part around the bridge (again: GIVE JOONAS MORE TIME TO SHINE!)
Another favourite – and the reason why I am almost annoyed by their other singles, especially DEADZONE and FLATLINE, is Happy Doomsday. I think this song is super underrated! I loved it from the very first time I heard it and it’s one of my faves on the album. Actually it was kinda funny because when it was released, it was a kind of phase where a lot of bands I’m listening to released songs that are somehow connected to the current situation of our planet, climate change and so on. And well, the topic is up to date, I guess. I was almost pissed that the band more or less ignored it and didn’t put half as much energy into promoting this song as they put into the – in my personal opinion – much weaker FLATLINE and DEADZONE. Sorry, but I’ll love this song dearly forever. The chorus is so great to sing along and honestly, the merch they released with this song is on my toplist of prettiest BC merch ever.
Red Tail Lights was kinda inconspicuous to me in the beginning and to me personally not very memorable. IEven after listening to this album several times, this song couldn’t get stuck in my head and whenever I read the title I had no real memory of it. At least until I noticed one thing while taking notes for this review: The synthesizers / sound effects in the background throughout the entire song, that gave me such a strong HIM vibe that I almost feel like cramming out some old HIM CDs to listen to some Love Metal. Generally the melody is nice, but … it just doesn’t get stuck in my head. Except as the „song that sounds like HIM“.
Ou, ou, Not your bro is an interesting hone. Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of the „I’m not your bro“-thing, but somehow it fits the BC vibe, since this song feels like a follow-up to Like A Brother:
Not Your Bro:
Call me a brother once again
And I swear
You’ll disappear
Like A Brother:
The same blood we used to bleed
You turned into everything we said we’d never be
Said we’d never be, yeah!
You were like a brother to me
These wounds are way too deep
Don’t even bother to plead
How could you do this to me?
You were like a brother to me!
We’re back at the topic of friendships ending, people betraying you, false friendships and whatnotelse. They used the word Bro back in Like a Brother and I guess they will continue to use it. I have to live with it.
FLATLINE as the first single of the album was exciting and like a promise. But now, about a year later, to me personally it’s one of the weakest songs on the album to listen to at home. Thankfully I’ve seen it live quite a few times last year , so I know that it’s a damn great live song, especially because of the „hammer your chest until it turns blue“-part.
And finally, One Last Time … Again is a great song with an overall great sound (that yet again reminds me of some other band that I can’t name). I could totally imagine this song as another Eurovision-entry and that’s mildly hilarious. Generally I like it, although it doesn’t give me a 100% Blind Channel feeling, but I don’t like the ending. I don’t know why Blind Channel have this tendency to have their albums fade out a bit weirdly. They’re like Stephen King books – they also have weird endings in a lot of cases.
One more word about the overall album: In an Instagram post, Niko mentioned that he growled a lot more on the album. So I came with high expectations, because I read said post before I picked up our vinyl from the Packstation. Actually … I don’t know exactly what he meant. There’s rapping, there’s screaming and there’s clear vocals. There are a few growls, but not much? Do we have a different definition of growling? Anyway, I love his screams. I prefer them over the rapping to be honest. Niko is a great vocalist. But where are my promised growls?
All in all, I like the album. It’s melodic, it’s nice, it’s just way too short. And in advance, they advertised it as super heavy. In hindsight, Niko „rowed back“ on Instagram, stating that this is meant more in sense of lyrics. Which is important for me to stress, because I personally think it’s not that heavy. I’m excited to hear the new songs live.
Also: Look at this stunning red marbled vinyl.