Reviews

Internal Salvation

The Unseen

Released: Jul 10, 2007
Label: Epitaph
Reviewed by: Michelle Stoffel
3 comments

The Unseen wants you to know the world sucks, particularly America. Open your eyes, gawd, how have you not seen it yet?! On Internal Salvation, the band delivers a thematically based album surrounding death, mostly. I guess you could throw despair in there too.

The album starts with the rising rumble of organs, followed by the guitar and drums on "Brutal Truth." The band laced various newscasters reporting on different events, from sexual abuse by priests to brutal assault to those anti-gay protesters at soldier's funerals a few years back. It's a great introduction to the album: if there's a problem with America, the Unseen has it covered. The end product is one hell of a depressing album, depressing and a little preachy.

I don't think all politically or socially conscious albums wind up preachy, but this one did. The album's lyrics reiterate this idea that America is totally fucked and "we" (whomever that's referring to) can't see it, or worse, don't care. I have trouble figuring out who the intended audience is here. I'm gonna make the wild assumption that most people listening to the Unseen are aware of all these social problems and don't need to be enlightened from a soapbox. Maybe there are some new fourteen year-old fans that don't know, but I'm pretty sure everybody else does.

There's not much to say musically. If you like the way the Unseen has sounded before, especially since their move to Hellcat and release of State of Discontent, you will probably like this. The album pulls no surprises. I did genuinely enjoy tracks like "At Point Blank," "Act the Part," "Let It Go" and "Talking Bombs" because either the vocals, song structure or guitar offered slightly more variation than the rest of the album. Alas, too many of the tracks blend into loud guitars and shouting which ultimately creates the dreaded noise wall. Don't fear melody-just a teeny bit will go a long way.

Admittedly, I'm a little jaded when it comes to the street punk political angle, but it gets old. It's like hearing a politician's rhetoric; it starts to sound all-too-familiar and eventually you don't hear it at all. Maybe this album is supposed to wake someone like me up by pointing out all the murder, corruption, greed, hatred, crime, depression, 9/11 conspiracies, global warming issues, and residual Hurricane Katrina effects swarming in society, but it just kind of bums me out. I'm left feeling a little helpless. I'd prefer to listen to Wednesday Night Heroes. At least their latest album feels more proactive.