Label : Metropolis Records/Repo Records
Review By Erwin Van Dijk
The Birthday Massacre is a band from Canada, the country that gave us Melissa auf der Maur, Poutine and the Wolverine (X Men).The Birthday Massacre is from Toronto, Canada. Combining their interests in various musical and artistic styles, the band has successfully accumulated an impressive international fan base, press accolades, and defied categorization with their unique sound and visuals. The Birthday Massacre operates in the dark shadows between pop, goth and hard rock. Like a spooky version of The Misfits with Kim Wilde on vocals. The first time I saw them was at the Summer Darkness festival in 2006 in an overcrowded Tivoli (the mayor venue of the city of Utrecht). Their show (they were booked between some electro goth bands lasted for about 50 minutes and after that I had lost my Birthday Massacre virginity. It was a very impressive energy packed show and each of the spooky members of TBM knew what to do.They did another gig at this year’s Summer Darkness and this show easily outclassed the Lacuna Coil gig (which was also very good). Live The Birthday Massacre is far more metal than on the studio albums. But for some reason this album has no real live feeling barely audience and guitars safely mixed in the background.The show was recorded in Hamburg, Germany (which is also the home country of their current record company). Yes, that’s right: no “I Think We’re Alone” now (as done by Tiffany in the eighties and not the Tommy James & The Shondells version) Live this song is one of the absolute highlights of any The Birthday Massacre gig and will crush any resistance left in the sceptical visitor. Too bad it is not featured on this album but I guess this is because of the copyright. In my opinion The Birthday Massacre could have better released a live DVD right now instead of waiting with the DVD release until the end of this year – that will catch the feel of their shows much better than this CD. But it is still a nice Greatest Hits album. If I’m brutal honest I think you can better wait and save your money for the DVD.
Rating -78/100
Tracklist
- Before Dark (Intro)
- Video Kid
- Lover’s End
- Goodnight
- Falling Down
- Violet
- Red Stars
- Looking Glass
- Remember Me
- Unfamiliar
- Walking with Strangers
- Weekend
- Horror Show
- Kill the Lights
- Blue
- Happy Birthday
Line Up
- Chibi – Vocals
- Rainbow – Guitars/Programming/Vocals
- M. Falcore – Guitars
- Owen – Keyboards
- O.E. – Bass/Vocals
- Rhim – Drums
Links
MySpace * ReverbNation * Facebook * Twitter * Site