Eighteen Visions - 1996 (2021)Release ID: 36783
In the second year of the COVID lockdowns, live performances were still put on hold. Music fans had more time to spend listening to music and writing about it in reviews. Some bands split up or went on hiatus, while others continued to record. Eighteen Visions used the time to record some more material after last year's Inferno EP, and this time it's one song and 9 covers, in a surprise-release looking back at different bands from the 90s, the cover album 1996!
From June to July 2021, the band released 3 singles. The first one was an Alice in Chains cover, the second one was a Vision of Disorder, and the third was their own song. Then on the 4th week, all 7 other tracks came out in this album together with those 3 singles. Personally, I think when they switch into Alice in Chains-style hard rock/alt-metal, it doesn't always work as much as their metalcore glory. Still they can blend beauty and chaos together well. With crushing drums, pummeling bass, searing guitars, and in-your-face vocals ranging from clean singing to bloodcurdling screams, there's barely any other cover album to hit you as hard as this.
The title track is the sole new song here. It pays tribute to a few things; this era of old-school metalcore/hardcore, the year the band was formed, and also the year vocalist James Hart stood up against a racist Nazi bully in high school, a true story that became the lyrical inspiration for that song. This is heavy old-school-sounding metalcore that would have you party like it's that year! Now it's on to the covers, starting with the aforementioned Vision of Disorder cover, "D.T.O.", a heavy highlight made f***ing heavier. Brilliant! "The Hangedman" is a cover of that Damnation A.D. track, in which the original was dragged down by the painful vocals and lyrics. I dig 18V's cover a lot more than the sh*tty original, but the fact it's still that song prevents this from becoming a highlight.
"Born From Pain", originally by Earth Crisis, comes up next, and just like the original, there's heavy weight in the music and lyrics. The Unbroken cover "Blanket" is another intense unforgiving highlight, and my favorite track in the metalcore/hardcore side of the album, almost like an outtake from their previous album XVIII. Oh yeah, the album has two sides, and the second has covers of songs from hard rock/alt-metal bands, starting with that first single, the Alice in Chains cover, "Them Bones". I don't really listen to a lot of Alice in Chains, but I'm familiar with that song, and they've really nailed it from the iconic intro. As if the original didn't sound filthy enough, this is a much more crushing tribute. With that, I can forgive 18V for their earlier attempts at grunge-metal. "Scentless Apprentice" is a song by Nirvana, known as the most popular grunge band. As always, it manages to outshine the original, in this case with the sick bass and vocals, nicely done!
"Sad but True" is a song from Metallica's Black Album. As heavy as the original song was, 18V has turned it into f***ing heavier sh*t. I mean, d*mn, this is truly solid! And then, Nine Inch Nails' "Terrible Lie"... Holy sh*t, what a cover! Far better than the original and even Static-X's cover. 18V has covered a NIN song before, "March of the Pigs", shortly after reforming, and the one also rules more than the original and Horse the Band's take on it. "Terrible Lie" is so f***Ing perfect, and my favorite in the rock/metal side. "Down" by Stone Temple Pilots is the last song covered here, and it's another cover heavier than the heavy original.
This may sound a little biased, but 1996 is one of the best cover albums in metalcore. It would've reached a perfect 5 stars if they had replaced that Damnation A.D. cover with a different one from a metalcore/hardcore band. Still I really dig the other 9 songs, and if there's anything to bring the band back to their early 2000s glory, this is that!
Favorites: "1996", "D.T.O.", "Blanket", "Them Bones", "Terrible Lie"
