I See Stars: Past and Present - Do they suck?

I have complicated feelings about this band (and, no, they're not that kind).

3-D, their first album, dropped in 2008.  They toured with Attack Attack! around the same time and honestly they were about the same, quality-wise, but somehow more boring.  At least Attack Attack! is frickin’ hilarious in hindsight.  My first impression was that 3-D era ISS has sparse screaming, lame breakdowns, and instrumentation that really sounds like every other crappy fancore band out there.  I know that me saying that something sounds generic and boring is in itself becoming a somewhat generic and boring statement but I don't know how else to word it.  3-D is a lame album, only good when compared to its peers.  

One thing I will give it is that the electronic stuff is used more often than most other fancore bands do (they usually keep the use of it down to some shitty autotune and not much else, but electronic sounds actually have a presence on 3-D in addition to the autotune, which is often annoying but occasionally contributes to a bit of a more sci-fi-ey sound.  It sounds more like they’re using it to create some sort of new style instead of compensating for a lack of talent… I don’t like it, but at least they’re trying, I guess?).  However, if you don’t like that stuff, you’re shit out of luck.  The screams are a touch better on this album than most of their peers’, but they are used sparingly.  Devin Oliver’s cleans aren’t flawless, but they sound halfway decent once the producers turn the autotune off.

And Sing This! is absolutely a pop song, no post-hardcore or metalcore or electronicore here.  Anyone who disagrees is beyond help.  The electronic stuff sounds more eurobeat or something, and sounds painfully out of character when placed alongside the other songs on the album.  It’s annoying, too.  Any band that can shit this out and put it on their debut album deserves at least some sort of punishment, which I can only exact by mocking it on this blog.  And the name is stupid.  Nobody can sing this without either being a robot or spending several hours on postproduction work.  Too much autotuuuune.

Potential is only identified in the instrumental interlude on the album, which gets by on being kind of pretty.  It’s also short, and was thus by far the easiest song to sit through.  It sounds more technically skilled than anything else on the album, and makes you wonder what the album would’ve been like if they made the rest of the songs like that.   Then, if you go back and really listen to the other songs, most of the backing guitars are actually rather pretty in this album.  …however, they get very little focus and you really don’t hear them unless you’re really listening.

I could talk about the lyrics, but let’s just say that for the most part I didn’t really notice anything.  They're nothing notable.

After 3-D, in a true act of pointlessness, they lost their screamer/keyboardist (Zach Johnson), got a new one, lost that one, and then got Zach back.  Then they made their second album, The End of the World Party.

It’s not very good, either. 

For the most part, the basic guitar line shows capability of being heavy (especially in the title track), but we have many, many tracks that forego this potentially interesting stuff and flips straight into pop rock (Still Not Quite Enough is an example).  The electronic stuff is played rather poorly, and seems to just be crammed into there wherever they could fit it, often to the detriment of the song (again, Still Not Quite Enough is an example), making them sound poorly-produced and messy.  The cleans haven’t changed much, continuing the trend of being decent when not poorly autotuned.   The uncleans have very little presence at all.  I guess they didn’t like them much on 3-D and tried to phase Zach Johnson out as much as possible.  He sounds more like backup than anything, and he isn’t even in several of the songs (sad, because I find this band's heavier stuff less annoying).

The lyrical content, and overall tone of the songs, seems like this album was aimed at young people.  Like, 12 years old young.  It’s not pandering to tween fangirls, but the content is cheesey, chipper and upbeat.  I mean, there’s a song called It Will Be Up (High School Never Ends).  The lyrics in that are rather stupid, and the sentiments it brings up could only be something enjoyed by people who don’t understand what high school is like.  It’s honestly really pathetic that a band full of grown-ass men wrote a song about how “High School Never Ends”.  Makes them look juvenile and obnoxious.  Swearing is avoided, and some of the lines are so cheesey and lame that it really does look like some middle schooler wrote them:

(From Pop Rock and Roll)

Yeah I'm just a kid

But I can be tall

I can be anything at all

I can be yours

You can be mine

(From Wonderland) 

You ask why I'm so blue

I've been holding my breath for you

And I tried so many times

Just to get it through your mind

You know that it's sad but true

That it's too late

(From Where I Let You Down)

So I guess that this is starting over

Back to when I was your four-leaf clover

…I could post more, but if I did, we’d be here all day.

These lyrics are so bad that they actually make the singer sound worse.  Nobody can sound good while singing that.  He’s trying.  He’s really trying.  But he can’t.  I’m sure even some great like Mike Patton couldn’t pull this shit off.  I would be embarrassed singing this out loud; imagine how hard it must be doing that in a concert in front of screaming fans and Ronnie Radke?  There’s no conflict or bite whatsoever, just a general sense of cheeriness.  Any conflict in these songs is probably about as high-stakes as that of your average Full House episode.  I don’t mind the singer that much, I really don’t, but he’s given so little to work with and such meh production that of course he sounds annoying.

The decent percussion and a bit of the more melodic guitars remain the high-point of the album.  And they had a couple of decent breakdowns (Wonderland’s is certainly not great but it’s passable).   However, those are often left out entirely for a pop rock feel with some electronics whirring away in the background.  Overall, the title track is probably the best, as its chipperness fits better, having more uncleans to contrast it and the vocal stylings and electronic elements really do fit with the song’s subject matter (a party at the end of the world).  It’s also one of the heavier songs on the album.  But the rest of the album is pretty bad.  Thus, this album shows potential and then cruelly rips it out of your hands and replaces it with stupid pop crap. 

If you had enough of a hate-crush to still be listening to band in 2012, you would have witnessed their third album, Digital Renegade.

And, well, if you really liked them up until that point, you probably disliked Digital Renagade.  Zach Johnson is back, and damn it I missed him, he actually gives the songs some much-needed range.  In addition, Devin on the cleans has less dumb lines to shout, so he sounds better.  I assume that they duct-taped the mouth shut of whoever wrote the lyrics last time (or maybe he was too high to write them), because they’re far better this time.   They’re nothing deep or intensely meaningful, but they are at least average, and are certainly not cringeworthy/painful like last time.

The boys are willing to actually convey emotion besides bland cheer this time around, and some of the songs are pretty angry.  The anger works fine played over the heavier guitar line and the neat-o breakdowns.   Yeah, on that topic, the songs are much heavier than basically all of their other albums’.  As someone who finds heaviness a way to make a boring song more exciting, this was a necessary change.   The breakdowns are far better, and the electronic backup actually contributes to the sound.  Each beat has more punch, and this whole album has a weird EDM-metal feel.  In their best songs, Devin’s high-pitched voice actually meshes well with the angry guitars and electronics, giving them a fun feel that makes you want to dance along.   However, these are the bright spots.  

There are plenty of lamer moments in the songs, and a lot of the songs are rather similar (making listening through the whole album from beginning to end somewhat dull).  This band sounds best when they’re being agressive, but when the beat is cheerier/less heavy I tune out.  Thus, I can’t bring myself to be interested in Electric Forest, which is poppy enough to feature a female singer. 

Overall, this album has a lot of duds but it also has a few shimmering high points that I actually enjoy and would choose to listen to again.  And the intro to the album (the beginning of Gnars Attacks) is pretty frickin’ awesome.

So, looking back at I See Star’s past albums, we have:

3-D: A generic fancore album with some electronic stuff.  The only good song is an instrumental interlude.

The End of the World Party:  A rather annoying pop rock album that has completely forgotten its metal roots and has only one song that’s even remotely tolerable.

Digital Renegade: A much heavier album accentuated by electronic dancebeats.  It’s somewhat repetitive, but some of the songs stand out and are actually rather enjoyable.

So, what about their most recent album, New Demons?   What do I think about that?

…well, this is where I lose some metal street cred.   I See Stars is a widely mocked electronicore band with well-known fancore roots, and I actively mock fancore bands often.  They’ve toured among plenty of hilariously bad bands, and their members are almost exclusively cute young men.  They have made crappy, juvenile music that I have hated (and still do hate) in the past.  A lot of intelligent people that I kind of respect hate them. 

New Demons is one of my favorite albums.  I really like every song on it.  Call it a guilty pleasure, but I don't find much guilt in enjoying this.

I remember when I first listened to this album.  It was the only ISS album I knew about, so I broadcasted proudly that there were one of my favorite metal bands (I considered electronicore metal, okay?).  I must’ve looked like an idiot back then.  I honestly didn’t know that this band is much more infamous for its shitty songs, and I didn’t know that I had to clarify that I only like New Demons.  I’m glad I never posted some sort of top ten metal list on the internet yet; I would’ve never lived that one down.  …I am such a hypocrite… 

New Demons is sort of a perfect storm for this band; I doubt that they will ever make anything like it ever again.  The production is absolutely amazing.  Every single electronic buzz and beep is perfectly placed, working alongside the guitar/drum effects to produce a really cool sound that I can only compare to The Browning, which doesn’t sound as good as this in my opinion.  This whole album has a unique, well-constructed sound that I think it wouldn’t have had if the electronics were removed.  They blend in seamlessly with everything else, and don’t sound like obnoxious noise like they did on The End of the World Party.  

They also contribute to the awesomely heavy baseline, which sounds unbelievable.  This album was made to be played at top volume on a car’s souped-up music player with the windows rolled down. 

I doubt that the music is hard to play, but damn it sounds good.  The screams and cleans combine in wonderful harmony- Devin doesn’t annoy me in this at all!  His range has improved miles, and he sounds way more emotional than he usually does.  I could say similar things about Zach’s screams.  He sounds great. 

The breakdowns are some of my favorites.  The one in Violent Bounce is so aggressive, I love it.  I usually find the things boring, but these are so heavy and angry that it’s all I can do to not bob my head along.

The poppier elements in here have most of the good elements of pop with few downsides.  The songs here are catchy as hell and make you want to dance, but they lack the vapid annoyingness that The End of the World Party had.  The angrier screams and heavy bass are a fantastic contrast to Devin’s passionate, soaring voice, and the lyrics are just emotional and visceral enough to keep you invested.  This album plays heavily to your gut, and if you judge it on that level it’s very satisfying.  If you can only tolerate ridiculously technical stuff (which I completely understand; I love technical stuff, too), this is probably not for you.   But, for me… This is really enjoyable, and is such a stark improvement from I See Stars’ other stuff I can barely believe that it’s the exact same lineup that made 3-D and the same producer that made Digital Renegade.  It’s a great album, and I don’t think that I’ll like an electronicore album this much again, at least for a while.

So, I guess the answer to that eternal question "Does I See Stars suck?" is "They used to, but not any more... at least for now."