I am impressed with bands like Staija. These are talented people. Their music is tight. They have good studio production. They have a cool website. They wear black.

But. (For those who don't know, the word 'But' means 'Ignore everything I have just told you.)

I just can't understand the genre of 'metal emo' that just spreads like a cancer or fungus through the music world. The dichotomy of angry, tight, rip-your-face-off, metal music, glazed with useless, sappy, (let's be honest, Girly-Man) lyrics. Bands like NIN, Tool, and Korn are able to run a mood swing from angry to sad and it sounds authentic, but bands like Staija and P.O.S. (Sorry, I mean P.O.D.) have lyrics that sound like they were lifted from a Danielle Steele novel. These songs are usually easy to identify, because 99.9 percent of them are based around only two characters, and the relationship gone wrong between them, told from a first-person perspective, they all contain the word 'trust' (or more likely 'trusted') they are drowned in pronouns: I, Me, My, and You. Some Examples:

'I know you felt like I was fading away'
'Youre just everything I wanted'
'Ive left nothing for myself'
'You said you wanted me'
'I love you'
'I hate you'

Useless.

Strangely, the vocals can swing over to very angry, yelly, death metal, 'but there seems to be no validity or truth to them, you just want to tell the singer just to get over it already. My theory is that useless lyrics like this are easy to write; an afterthought really. Even easier now, because we have moved beyond the need to rhyme. Kiss the vocal hook goodbye. I thought Bon Jovi and Def Leppard taught us better.

Listen to NIN's 'Big Man With A Gun', then listen to 'Hurt', and then try to call Trent Reznor a pussy. You can't. Then listen to Staija and try to imagine the lead singer getting into a fist-fight. You can't. The lyrics and subject matter make them seem so silly-nonsense-sensitive that anything more brash than cutting you off at the checkout line at the grocery store, or flipping you off on the Interstate would make them burst into tears. They seem more angst-laden than actually angry, or perhaps all their anger is directed inwards? They seem much more likely to hurt themselves than anyone else. Suicide Sheik?

Sadly, the genre is already established enough that someone will probably realease a compilation album, and if so, Staija should get top billing. In short; a good band, but a bad genre.

-C

Labels: Emo Sucks, music reviews