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04 April 2004
40 Below Summer, The Mourning After (Razor & Tie/Roadrunner)
The Mourning After sees New Jersey outfit 40 Below Summer add a more melodic touch to their ferocious nu-metal thrashings for their first album on excellent New York indie label Razor and Tie. After getting lost in the corporate shuffle when Sire was swallowed up by Universal, 40 Below Summer drafted in Crash Test Dummies and Vertical Horizon producer David Bendeth to add a deft melodic subtlety to the band's powerful heavy rock. Opener "Self Medicate", which recently featured on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre soundtrack, achieves that balance perfectly, with a cracking melody intertwining with some full-on riffing, while some beautiful piano flourishes add a neat twist to the overall intensity of "Rain". Bendeth's melodic influence is all over "Breathless", but even though it's a relatively new approach for 40 Below Summer, the band avoid sounding like a nu-metal cliché and at least offer up something different for the genre.
— Andrew Ellis
.: posted by Editor 9:41 AM
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