I Set My Friends on Fire - Astral Rejection Review

I Set My Friends on Fire are essentially the greatest trolls of the music industry. It was pretty obvious with their debut, You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter, but after the god awful taste left in the mouth of anyone who heard their infamous "Crank That" cover, it was nearly impossible to look at anything close to redeeming about the record.

Truthfully, there wasn't much. Songs like "Things That Rhyme With Orange" proved the band had capabilities to make music that didn't sound like live pigs going through a meat grinder, but as a whole, the record was embarrassing. Now that a few years have passed since the first album, perhaps people will begin to realize the point of I Set My Friends on Fire with the release of their sophomore effort, Astral Rejection. The best thing about their point though: there isn't one. I Set My Friends on Fire just kind of do whatever the hell they want, and they showcase that best on this album. From lyrics like "cumming is one of my favorite things to do," to a song called "Erectangles," there is no way that they actually take themselves seriously.

It'll be a tough concept to grasp, but I Set My Friends on Fire improve on Astral Rejection. Granted, the grating screaming and breakdowns are still prevalent (and bad) as always, but the band's clean vocals are also very present as well. The clean vocals were really the only decent part of I Set My Friends on Fire, and the sole fact that it's in almost every song just makes it the better album by default. In "Developer, the Horn," no screaming is in it at all in fact, making it the easy standout of the album. It actually sounds like a song that Breathe Carolina would be jealous of, which is a bit sad when they're mainly trying to mock those types of bands anyway. Another notable includes the catchy single "It Comes Naturally." These tracks show that Astral Rejection has the ability to make a decent hook in what is otherwise a mess of an album. It's kind of like getting an STD and finding out it's curable chlamydia: It's better, but it still sucks....full text The second song on I Set My Friends On Fire’s sophomore (and sophomoric) album is called “Infinite Suck.” As they say in Hollywood, the joke writes itself. The duo of Matt Mehana and Nabil Moo is now the duo of Mehana and Chris Lent, with production assistance from Travis Richter of the Human Abstract. The music is as annoying as ever, mixing the worst qualities of Brokencyde, I See Stars and Agoraphobic Nosebleed into one swirling blend of cheesy rave synths, ultra-affected “extreme” vocals, talentless guitar mangling, ultra-primitive drum programming and song titles that probably seemed funny at the time (“My Paralyzed Brother Taps His Foot To This Beat,” “Life Hertz,” “Erectangles”). It’s hard to decide which is the album’s worst quality—Mehana’s scratchy-throated “extreme” vocals or his lame, off-key attempts to sing cleanly. Maybe it’s neither of those things; maybe it’s the lyrics.

At least there aren’t any lame hip-hop covers on Astral Rejection—the group’s debut, 2008’s You Can’t Spell Slaughter Without Laughter, featured their “hilarious” take on Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat.” That’s a tiny, tiny plus. There are one or two moments on Astral Rejection that are briefly and superficially entertaining, in exactly the way drinking a bottle of Jolt Cola instead of eating lunch is temporarily satisfying. But both leave you with an empty, gurgling pain in your guts and the feeling that you made a very poor decision....full text