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Luxt:
American Beast
American Beast fits right into the current nu-metal scene. It has heavy electronic-backed rhythms, crunchy nondescript guitar riffs, and vocals that are half-singing and half-shouting/rapping. The band's main strength is vocalist Anna Christine. In shouting mode, she gets the point across, and in her smoother singing mode she lets us know that her voice is actually quite nice. Bands such as Lacuna Coil, The Gathering, and Arch Enemy have shown us that talented female vocalists can front metal bands all across the spectrum with tremendous style. While I definitely wouldnt rank Luxt with those bands, I will say that Christine makes Luxt far more interesting than they would be with Joe Schmoe lead singer. In my past reviews, Ive been known to harp on bands for writing dumb lyrics, and Luxt gets no special treatment. Most of the lyrics here are passable, if not poetic, but its the repeated choruses of songs such as Suck It Down and Life Is Pain that push American Beast into dumb lyrics land. From the later: Yes it hurts fucker / Yes it hurts fucker / Yes it hurts and I love it like it was my mother. You could try to argue that this song teaches kids the valuable lesson that life hurts like a fucker, but I would maintain that it merely perpetuates stereotypes about metal being dumb-person music. On the level of songwriting, American Beast demonstrates that Luxt knows how to write songs with decent hooks. For evidence, listen to Cease, Folding, or the title track. Still, I cant say that the material on American Beast is all that original or even remarkable enough to demand repeated listens. The one exception is the live acoustic bonus track Perpetusex, which, despite the intolerably hip title, is really a cut above the other material on the album. It exudes a powerful atmosphere that none of the other tracks can match, and it is the one song on the album that I would recommend. All told, American Beast is competent and tolerable but not groundbreaking.
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