What’s the deal with CDs?
Reviewing this album, I needed a consistent place to listen to it. I chose to play it on my car’s CD player. I have a nice trip to work and back home. Most albums, I can listen to in their entirety in a single day. In my car, I can listen an uncomfortable number of times before changing it out. It’s the ultimate stress test.
Why buy CDs in the download era? Two reasons. First, CDs take us on a carefully arranged journey from start to finish, where every track adds to the message, even if it’s not a full song. Downloading songs to insert into a playlist doesn’t offer that experience. The second reason is for object permanence. With digital downloads, you don’t own a song or album, you subscribe to access it. Owning a CD, you have it pretty much forever if you take care of it. I’m not going to debate the preference between records versus CDs. Mostly because my car does not have a record player. Records are great also. Less portable, but higher fidelity. The physical touch of the needle on the vinyl in your room feels the same things the record in the studio felt when it was recorded. Listening to a record, you can almost feel the vibe in the room.
Reviewing CDs, I look for certain criteria to be considered. Does the band have a tight sound? Meaning do all the instruments hit the same beat at exactly the same time? Is it a studio quality recording? If those both hit, I’m less likely to get a headache, and into the car it can go.
Album Impression
The first time playing the album through, I was relatively impressed. For a part-time regional band, The Impurity has a tight sound, and a very listenable album. For the band’s sound, think of Megadeth drums, White Zombie guitar, and Godsmack vocals. I did not feel the need to hit the skip button once, and as far as bangers go, the song Wolf was great. I instinctively hit the back button as soon as it was over to jam out one more time. As far as earworms go, Sometime is a great song to listen to one and hear over and over in your head. If this album was a concert, it would have been a great show. As a CD, I’d love to go to the concert.
As the album loops through a few more times, it’s easier to take a critical listen to it. The first song I find myself skipping is The Flood. It’s a decent song, it just didn’t resonate with me, and it started to feel like a long, repetitive song. Ultimately, all the songs are long and repetitive with about 1–2 repetitions. Otherwise, they have a great flow, and it’s as repeatable as any mainstream musicians.
What’s Next?
As I mentioned in the beginning, they are a part-time band. So it takes them a long time to come out with more music. They do however tour extensively. Despite having day jobs, they put in the work, and they are open to booking gigs. I would love to see a second album released. One thing I’d like to see, which this album was lacking, would be a deep, emotional song that cuts through the soul and relates on a traumatic level. Also, every heavy metal band has to have at least one hard-hitting song people can just crank and scream along to. 4 out of 5 stars.
For song lyrics, visit https://www.lyrics.com/sub-artist/The-Impurity
