Review by JD on September 3, 2012.

I look at music like food... there is a certain joy in something that is tasty and known, and excitement when you try a dish that you have never tried before. Excitement that seemed to be tinged with a fear that this strange food looking up at me it will taste like shit and i have spent $20 on that. That is what I was feeling as I sit down to write a review for an unusually named band Lakes.

Lakes are based in England, and have been causing a buzz. Coming across as a Ambient/punkish equivalent to Killswitch Engaged... the huge amounts of buzz surrounding this young act for me, seems to be just all hype and no real substance. Aside from sounding as if they are very good musicians, that is where the praise ends. With little direction in the building of the music not to mention the furiousness of the riffs that Lakes try to mask the disorganized music with, the anticipation of the hype quickly wains and then vanishes - leaving a vast pit of nothingness, and an uninspired album chalked full of empty promise and wasted studio time.

Songs like 'Silenc'e or 'Fr[end]s' start out with promising riffs, but they almost instantly stagnate and go nowhere fast, causing mind crushing boredom in an instant. There are three instrumental songs on here as well, and they too are all just useless fluff and have no passion as they bore you worse than the music they pump into elevators in hotels.

I think that Lakes has lots of unused talent somewhere inside of themselves, but their album in no way deserves the hype and praise that they are getting. Don’t know how they are doing this job of getting everyone to go crazy over them, but I commend their promotional staff on putting out such a explosive buzz out on what is in fact is some of the most valueless music ever put down.

Warning for everyone - people that love metal should avoid this album. Simple final words, and the only ones that seem to be appropriate in this situation.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 3
Production: 5
Originality: 3
Overall: 3

Rating: 4.4 out of 10