By Seth Metoyer,
Listening to Timōrātus is a unique experience and one I recommend that others who are into pretty much any heavy music genre do the same and crank up loud.
With their newest release "My Life in a Made Metal Band", you get a heavy dose of dueling vocals, satirical lyrics, pummeling guitar riffs, and tight music production.
In "My Life in a Made Metal Band", we find out what happens when you give a mediocre metal band tons of money and no brains on how to handle it. The release is the sequel to My Life in a Mediocre Metal Band.
Upon first listen, my stream of consciousness lead me mentally down the road of something akin to Faith No More (lyrically and aesthetically) intertwined with some death metal ala The Faceless, mixed with a little Cephalic Carnage and even sprinkled with some Rammstein chug vibes here and there. It's like a primordial soup of metal genres coming together to make some seriously creative music.
I particularly dug the multiple vocals on this entire album between David "The Party" Napier and Courtney "The Style" Napier. The songs have a nice groove to them.
Lyrically, like all good comedy bits, these metal jokesters are simply saying what we are all thinking. Through the album, we follow "the most awesome band in the world" who has finally "made it", and has been given some money to spend, which eventually deteriorates over time, stemming from their delusions of fame and perceived success in the music industry. This is a fun and catchy album.
Below are my quick thought breakdowns of the songs:
We Made It follows the delusions of the band who believe their lives have changed for the better because they've finally "made it".
Too Famous makes me want to find and restore a 1979 Chevrolet.
Fan Trouble is absolutely hilarious, if not a bit too real. It makes me think about how all conventions in the creative fields go down, with many "celebrities" charging extra money for photos and signatures when they already charged the fans for seeing them in person.
Better Than You has a particularly dope Cephalic Carnage vibe, one of my favorite bands (not sure if that's a true influence here or not, but it's cool either way). And songs about hubris are always winners.
Best Show pt. 2 makes me want to roll around on a large bear rug in wads of sweaty money wearing JNKO Jeans.
Band Briefing is a truly funny skit. It reminds me that I need to get Steve's Snaketuary Hot Sauces to make me a custom Mangled Carpenter Hot Sauce. You'll have to check out the TIMŌRĀTUS track Band Briefing to get the reference.
Can't Keep Up (feat. Mac Smith) is my favorite track on the album upon first listen. It grabs you by the throat right out of the gate. The lyrics change the trajectory of the album's storyline and take a turn from the fame of a band as the hubris finally catches up to them and they are beginning to struggle with debt and the demise of everything. I like the inclusion of the clean vocals that kick in around the 1:22 mark in this one. It adds an extra element to the song.
Lonely is a nice little ballad full of naive heartfelt nuances and inner self-searching. "I'm not vain, I'm just really choosey" and "I'm actually quite very nice and super humble" are great lines.
Record Reckoning time is here and it's time to recoup the money owed to the record label. The cost of playing the game comes home to roost and the truth about the music industry unfolds.
We Blew It finds reality set in for the band. The lessons are simple. Humility, loyalty, common sense, and understanding of any situation will take you far, in all walks of life. I personally believe that everything in life is a business transaction. From your job to your friends to your relationship. Even with Christ, there was a transaction that took place for your salvation.
Sorry has some pretty sounding, clean vocals that kick off the track. Mixed with the non-clean vocals, it has some nice depth. Lyrically the band offers a fitting apology to their fans, and I enjoyed the inclusion of 6 languages of "Sorry" to end the song (and album).
I enjoyed this album and can tell I'll be cranking it up again multiple times in the future.
Listen to the TIMŌRĀTUS album My Life in a Made Metal Band, released on released June 10, 2022, streaming everywhere, including:
Album Credits: David "The Party" Napier - Instrumentation, Vocals, and Lyrics
Courtney "The Style" Napier - Lyrics and Vocals
Logan "The Redneck" Thompson - Guitar (Better Than You) and Vocals (We Blew It)
Mason "The Kid" Beard - Vocals (We Blew It)
The "The Mystery" Mystery - Bass
Mac Smith of Krosis, Decrepit Birth, Alterbeast, Hammer of Dawn - Guest Vocals (Can't Keep Up)
Krissy Vanderwoude of The Churchhill Garden - Guest Vocals (Can't Keep Up)
Peter Watson of Elephant Watchtower - Guitar Solo (Can't Keep Up)
Eero Tertsunen - Background Track and Guitar (Band Briefing)
Additional Voices - Matt Jochum and Chris Dowell
Garrett McGill - Artwork
Check out TIMŌRĀTUS 'Can't Keep Up' lyric video:
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