WHAT DO YOU THINK OF STRAIGHT LINE STITCH?
Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 11:08am by Axl RosenbergI saw Straight Line Stitch’s video for “Remission” on Headbanger’s Ball over the weekend and thought to myself “Gee, I bet MetalSucks readers would LOVE to argue about this band.” There just seem to be so many different elements which you peeps will either love or hate. So I’m going to reserve my own judgement for now and just let you guys and gals duke it out. Watch the below and let us know what you think. I’m betting we get 50/50 positive versus negative reactions…
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/JsXK1w0Yrm4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
-AR
I saw them live years ago, they were pretty good, i saw the video on headbangers on Saturday…and that song was horrible!! if thats what the record will sound like , ewwwwwwwww!!! the screaming to the clean sounded like they were not even the same song!
bad, just bad
I can’t decide if I like them or not. Her screams are pretty rad, but the singing throws me off a bit.
I thought Nu-Metal died in 2000???
I’m having he same porblem as Nicole. When it started it was kind of cool but the transistion between clean and scream was wierd. Not like a Killswitch or ATR transition. The clean singing sound ok, but it just didn’t mix well for me.
Total agreement with Nicole and all comments below. I’m not a fan of bands that attempt to combine clean and growling vocals to begin with, and although this band might actually be doing that well for what it is, I think generally bands that do this sound indecisive about who they are/what they’re going for.
Not a great sound, but they are tight, fairly strong musicians it seems. And metal chicks rock ;) they just shouldn’t try to be Cristina Scabbia and Brian Fair at the same time.
it’s true; she should just sing. bands who try to do both are wack. without exception.
Is this Wicked Wisdom??!
She has a good scream, but the song is boring I think :/
There is nothing wrong with bands that mix screaming and clean singing–nothing at all, and those of you who say so are close minded and obv havent listened to much music. How about a band like Thrice? Whats wrong with them????
Anywho, I agree that THIS BAND does NOT mix it well. It sounds like studio magic to me and that song would sound horrible live. It is the epitome of a band throwing a bunch of cool riffs together and tossing in clean vocals to appeal to the masses. I guess im not particularly a fan of a breakdown riff with slow, singing. The first change from scream to sing just sounded weird…
Almost as bad as that VampireFreaks.com site you guys link to.
I only got through a minute of the song before I got bored. It was boring and cliche. And I’m not a fan of her screaming. Reminds me of Kittie and something like Wicked Wisdom.
hmmm… reminds me more of in this moment, but i listened to their songs on their myspace, and those mix well better then the song in the video
I saw the video on Headbanger’s Ball, and I thought to myself “Wow, this band really sucks!” Then I saw them live in NYC a week ago. Again: “Wow, this band really sucks!” I was gleeful, however, when Napalm Death started ripping the place apart and I contemplated how all the Hot Topic runts that had flooded the place must have shit their pants.
By the way, I saw Unexpect open for Nile at the same venue last night, and besides the band’s being brutal and original, Leïlindel is a perfect example of an excellent female singer who can both sing cleanly and growl. Everyone in the band is an excellent musician, and the result is music with effect and purpose rather than just a bunch of gimmicks like the Hot Topic fodder bands.
Speaking of gimmicks, Suicide Silence also opened, and they disgusted me more than Straight Line Stitch, because every f’ing song seemed to have 3 layers of breakdowns. Bleh.
I saw these guys open some shows here in Knoxville years ago back when Nu-metal was actually in, they had a different singer and a backup singer/hype-man type dude. They were generic back then too. But at least they are better musicians now. (assuming any of the same people are still in the band)
It had its moments, but generally not too shabby.
I would enjoy this band much more if she would do the scream vocals the whole time. Her scream vocals are pretty bad ass, but the singing ruins the song. Make them sound like Kittie.
this song sucked but i have heard a few songs that sounded good but i wouldnt go buy their album.
Female metal singers absolutely suck. They’re a gimmick that works cause most metal heads are losers who can’t get laid. This is so fucking boring. The music is awful. It’s so slow and predictable. No soul at all. The band acting like this music is intense makes me laugh. What poseurs. This is a great representation of the current state of metal.
She can’t sing, even autotune could not help her. The songwriting is poor, and what everybody said before me, the transitions from clean to grunt are poor.
While the band’s not my cup o’ tea, I have to say the mixing/production for this song is downright terrible. The band should ask for their money back, unless this is what they (a) sound like or (b) want to sound like, which in both cases is really sad.
Is that Jada Pinkett Smith…? Wait no, but just as bad.
erik…..i dont think you have ever heard of the band Unexpect or Diablo Swing Orchestra, Aghora, To-Mera…..those are bands that have female singers who know how to sing. But these bands actually have well composed music behind them, and thats what they market, not the fact that they have female singers, but the music behind the vocals.
I know when most people think of female singers in metal that the band will just use the female as a spokesperson for the whole band…And thats what kind of pisses me off because of those bands people just make these assumptions that all female singers suck.
and for those of you who don’t know who aghora is that is the later project of some of the members from the legendary band Cynic.
and To-Mera did have Lee Barrett(extreme noise terror, and owner of various labels)
four outta five thumbs down, this mighta sucked a little less had the year been 1996
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=155682460
IWRESTLEDABEARONCE
female lead singer that is absolutely ape shit and can sing, and it helps that the band backing her is retarded good.
-via metalinjection
I liked the intro, but when things kicked in, it reminded me of a bland Kittie song.
Her screaming is all throat, and it sounds like she’s going to ruin it like that douchefag from Avenged Sevenfold. On top of that, her clean vocals sound like they’re either in the wrong register for her or they’ve been severely auto-tuned. The rest of the music was fairly average, but as everyone said, the mix was horrible. Windmilling her beads, on the other hand, was pretty cool.
And I’ll second the iwrestledabearonce recommendation, although some might be turned off by their stupidity. That chick can scream like a mother fucker.
other than the singer being utterly tone deaf and the melodies (such as they are) are pedestrian and played out to death as of 10 years ago, this band has a lot going for it like…uh…a budget to make a shitty music video. Is that a positive?
[...] HUGE round of applause to our friends over at Metal Injection (and MetalSucks reader Vitruvian Ape!), who posted the below video for IWRESTLEDABEARONCE’s “Tastes Like Kevin Bacon,” [...]
Her hair is kinda cool, but Brian Fair’s is still longer
I saw these guys a couple months ago at The Boardwalk in Sacramento. They really are an entertaining band to see. Some of their heavy stuff is really fucking heavy. I like the different shit they’re incorporating in there too. It’d be nice if they did it a little more smoothly though.
I desperately tried to grab on to something on this whole thing… something… they’re not bad musicians… but for fuck’s sake I couldn’t really enjoy any of it.
She seems to be trying to go for something with her voice but never quite ever gets there, both in the screaming and the clean singing. Don’t know the rest of their stuff or live performances, but as far as this song’s concerned im pretty much not going to submit myself to it ever again.
There are bits and pieces of this that I like, but it doesn’t really jell that much for me. It seems very very posed and calculated and almost focus-grouped, right down to the guy in an ISIS t shirt.
Cool band! Interesting stuff.
The only thing this video has going for it is the hot singer chick. Why do bands still think it sounds good to overdub screaming with singing? I think that always ruins vocals. Also, if you wanna check out a good band with a female singer, check out Fuck the Facts: http://www.myspace.com/fuckthefacts
i think they are very good for the metalcore style. no, i cannot compare them to Doro, or another traditional metal band. however, they are very good at what they do. awesome metalcore, with fantastic vocals.
I actually enjoyed this and I haven’t listened to metal in a while a long while; and I actually sat up from my sleep ; her growling was fucking sick and worth it; on the other hand her soft tone; reminded me of emo-core but it was fresh to me and I would be willing to sample out that albumn, most girl singers do suck when I comes to metal; but she threw down in many ways considering; I give it a 3
the riffs in the song are ok but yea the mix between screaming and singing is uberly terrible. its way to fake sounding….excellent musicians….terrible vocals…..sad sad shame….hopefully they will get it right one day
Dude her screams were fuckin sick…..But the singing sucked asss…
TONE DEAF!!!!!!
If she screamed the whole time it would be awesome….
Too bad…..She is hot tho
[...] was the question asked by our own Axl Rosenberg in an editorial he wrote approximately 3 months ago; “Gee, I bet MetalSucks readers would LOVE to argue about this band.” As usual, the [...]
I gotta say i do like them, they are just gettin there feet
wet so everything is new,they are probably just figuring out
there sound. I like the metal that has screaming and singing
(as well as all other metal)LIKE Killswitch or Opeth and even As I lay dying and i gotta say she can damn sure do both! i have not heard a woman scream this good in awhile i just think like all
other metal bands they just need time to adjust because she has
a wicked sick scream and a hella awesome voice so rock on Straight
Like Stitch can’t wait to here more in the hopefully long future for you guys and gal lol c’mon metal heads just give em a shot!
don’t shoot them down so hard!
keep it metal,
horns up \M/
as i read all of the comments, i wonder. do you not have a dream of being a metal band? that is when it comes to me you have no clue. the music industry is a very crude place. for a band to make it to on a main stream tv show is a very high reward for being on the road for weeks, missing you family and friends. you live in hotel rooms and bleed you soul on stage everynite for what? people to tell you that you suck? maybe you should listen to the music. listen to the guitar riffs, the bass riffs, the drummer. everyone is so quick to judge. why? because if you dont understand something than you are scared of it, right? try to understand what it takes to give up your life for something that you love. and yes i have heard bands that i dont like but i dont say that they suck. they are just not my style.
They flat out suck! What was up with that rap/pop vocal breakdown in the middle!? I guess because the drummer does a blast beat, that quallifies them as metal! Headbanger’s Ball has gone to shit. All of these bands sound the same! Leave them for the maggots!
I’m definitely going out on a limb here to say that they’re really talented musicians. I wouldn’t say that this band sucks per-se. The woman can really scream well. Every bit as much as Kittie or Opeth. I didn’t like the fact that they mixed the screaming with the singing so I’m agreeing with others here on that. I figure that their next album sometime in the future (don’t know when) should incorporate songs that have screaming ONLY and singing ONLY! Like one half screaming and the other half more melodic singing. She should put a lot more bass into her voice I think when she tries to sing. Otherwise she’s just missing the mark. Not to sound racist but I was surprised the woman was black that is doing the vocals. At least she looks to be in the video. It’s not usually a common thing to see a black woman doing vocals in a Metalcore/alternative metal group. I’m not going to say this band sucks for the record overall. I don’t think their music is bad at all. Overall grade. B
Singing/screaming female vocals are not confined to the genre of Nu Metal. See: Cadaveria. See: Darzamat. This band suffers only from Debut Syndrome. They have a very high level of potential but have yet the opportunity to cultivate it on such a large scale. As for the Kittie comparisons, Funeral for Yesterday > Spit which proves the Debut Syndrome point. To the guy who said all female metal singers are just gimmicks, See: Ludicra. See: Diamanda Galas (ok so she’s not metal in the slightest but she’s more sick and perverse than just about ANY metal singer working this side of killing band mates over who is more evil. See: Mayhem)
Still, for the naysayers please post a link to your music which must be VASTLY superior to this for you to take such an elitist perspective. See: You’ve Become Everything You Hate. I promise you I will listen to the whole thing twice and reserve judgement until after the second time through. Which I would believe is more of an unbiased critical analysis of YOUR work than you gave this band.
I’ll be checking back from time to time for those links too.
o hell, people this is only one song, theyre bad as hell, l like it, it’ll catch on like evrything else does,
Im not a metal person. My friend pat patterson went to school with me and is from our small town of canaan CT. I like the band more cus i have a friend in it. But there growing on me good cd.
This song is the absolute worst piece of dogshit I ever heard!! The singing is horrendous and I agree with everyone else, THIS GIRL IS TONE-DEAF! The screams sound fake and the singing is bloody awful! Is this for real? Is this actually record or is this some kind of demo? The video looks like it was somewhat expensive so it scares me to think that this song is actually going to be released. The melodies are laughable and out of tune, the riffs are generic nu metal bullshit and the whole song is unfocused and annoying. It’s actually terrible! This is a very fine example of why the music biz in a slump.
I love them. Heard them on T.V. bought everything I could the next day. Been listening to them for a month and a half straight driving around town haha…She’s amazing. I’m a chick…I love chicks in metal. I love chicks in metal that scare boys that are out of their comfort zone. And as a girl, you know? It’s nice to hear things in a girls perspective. To hear the equivilent of, “I hate what you’ve done to me,” (Taken from other songs of theirs) from a female, can make it mean so much more. So great job, and I look forward to seeing them in Seattle in the middle of October!
(Side note: Mouthing off obscure bands does not make them any better simply because they’re not getting mass market recognition.)
i say fuck all of you guys this band kicks ass the fact that a black chick can kick ass like she did is awesome her screams are very good and the transitions to the clean must be hard for anyone cuz in this song it is really quik and overall if i had to give this band a rating from 1 to 10 it would be a nine. she sound like walls of jericho with some in this moment in it. but way better then wicked wisdom the only real reason why wicked wisdom is given any credibility is merely becouse the lead singer is will smiths wife
oh yeah and one last final comment straight line stitch keep doing your thing you guys are metal warriors
Anyone heard of Into The Silence. That band is disgustingly good. Check em out on the myspace. Or just use the google.
[...] that was directed by Dale “Rage” Resteghini, who some may remember as the dude who left angry comments on this site after our readers had a negative reaction to a video he directed for Straight Line [...]
The bassist was good, all else was crap
adding fuel to a long dead fire
no way Keith, her windmilling was fucking metal.
The clean vocals just don’t fit, and the lyrics are nothing special. They’re talented, but the metalcore thing just isn’t working out.
So I have read a lot of these replies and I think mostly they suck! Not trying to be mean, but have any of you really listened to this album. I guess I say this b/c I know them personally. I have know Lex for many years and over the years she has changed so much. In reality how often do you see a 90 pound black chick who can sing and scream her heart out. Its amazing. Everyone one needs to listen to the album. A few songs on the album were even changed. I’m not just saying this album is good because these people are my friends, but this album effin rocks. Its amazing.
Hell Yeah! Candi just wait, every teen chic in america will have one of Lex’s CD. So will alll of us Tru Nu-metal fans out there in the world that appreciate what it takes to create a line-up and sound like SLS. They are already Blowin up everywhere anywayz…..I dont Understand the haters,..but I think it is because of alll the crap they have injected in thier ears and minds that has severely distorted thier opinion in the first place…………..I know plenty of metal musicians that absolutely love this band….including Jaymie Jasta from HateBreed.
I like metal that has melody, they’re album is great. She has great harsh vocal range, WAY better then Angela – I’d listen to this any day over Arch Enemy. I love Lacuna Coil, but Christina isn’t a great singer.
I’m not Impressed, their beats they use are overdone to say the least and their music lacks diversity and refinement, but I’ll admit they have potential. They could become good but they’ll probably stay right where they are.
I really like this band but im sure they sound like total shit live….I really like listning to them recorded and I really like the lead singers voice and screams…I like the idea of this band more then their music.
Wtf is the problem with u people this band is sick!!!! and I know I represent the majority……..Better than kittie, comparable to Agonist. I saw SLS live and the bass player was fingertapping a six-string bass. The singer Alexis f**king screams like that for real. Every video and song gives me goosebumps……wtf is missing for u people……oh I know, ( complicated Necro-mongering noise Bullsh*t )
Seven string player