DESTROY ALL MONSTERS

'Destroy All Monsters', the debut solo album from Frost* member Dec Burke, is an unfortunate album. While there are perhaps a couple of songs with potential (Promised is one of them), the rest of the songs are extremely bland and uninspired. However, I think that the real fault with this album lies in the mixing. Even the 'good' songs like Promised are dragged down by the quality of the mixing on this album. There are lots of unnecessary noises that have clearly been added in post production, like synthesized drums and weird vocal effects. It's like it's trying to be a dance album as well as a prog rock album, and ultimately failing at both.

Most of the songs on this album are quite short, which, not unusually, means that they have a drab verse-chorus structure. These verses and choruses are never very good, and with all of the mixing, the songs actually become very grating on the ears. Signs Of Life is probably the worst song on the album in this respect.

The artwork and the booklet is quite good in fact. It is a very professionally made CD, which could easily trick you into thinking that the music itself is good. Even though I don't understand the significance of Little Red Riding Hood with a gun, I like the image on the front. Inside the booklet, there is a picture spread across two pages of a house with 'Police Line: Do Not Enter' in front, and again, I fail to comprehend the significance of this. Perhaps this album is a concept album? Even if it is, I really cannot be bothered to listen more to find out.

Ultimately, this album is a poor release. There moments I enjoy on this album are few and far between, but I will admit that I quite like Promised, with its quiet build up, synth solo, heavy section, and guitar solo. The chords in that particular song are powerful, but the mixing hinders the effect, when they should have loaded it with bass. Still quite a well balanced song, and it deserves praise for having the potential. However, it is only that good when it is compared with the rest of dross on the album. I hate giving such a critical review to a small time artist, but the prog world deserves to be warned when there is a bad album out there.