Atom Smash – Love Is In The Missile
Between store flyers, bills, envelopes with fake keys (to a car that YOU JUST WON!) and “make your ‘junk’ bigger” advertisements, going to the mail or even getting email can be a total hassle for some people. Well, reviewing music can be just as frustrating. There is nothing like checking the mail in anticipation of something fresh, new and cool, just to find not only all those things mentioned above but also your very own copy of…you guessed it, Justin Bieber’s newest abomination. As gut wrenching, vomit inducing and heartbreaking as that is (I’m talking about the JB album, not the bills), you sometimes come across a band like Atom Smash. This quintet from Miami, Florida are all set to release their debut full length titled Love Is In The Missile via Jive Records. Having been heralded by Maxim.com as 2010′s “Best Recently Signed Band”, will Atom Smash find a permanent place in the collection or end up in trash can next to Bieber and last week’s hairy meatloaf?
Love Is In The Missile‘s opening track “Ashes” is a pretty good indication of what to expect throughout the album’s 40 plus minutes. The clean, southern flavored guitar quickly turns ugly transforming itself into chunky six string distortion, rockin’ skins and Sergio Sanchez’s transcending melodic vocals. Atom Smash have an unshakable foundation that mixes the sound of bands like Full Devil Jacket, Flybanger, Day Of Fire and even Element Eighty. Sanchez’s voice is strong and gritty, yet very easy on the ears, reminding me quite a bit of Josh Brown (Full Devil Jacket, Day Of Fire).
If you enjoy your rock harder than Hugh Hefner on an all night Cialis binge, then you’ll want to check out tracks like “Last Call”, “Mile High Love”, “Sacrifice” and “Rocker Girl.” Featuring a quick Linkin Park type intro, Atom Smash bring out the big guns on “Last Call” with punchy riffs, loads of bounce and tons of melody. “Mile High Love” comes straight out of the gate with ripping guitar licks, hammering drums and Sanchez’s extremely well rounded vox. The combination of Marc “Taco” Annino’s pounding kit, Alex “Z” Zilinski and Luke Rice’s slamming guitar groove have to make “Sacrifice” the most menacing song on the record. Not only does this bad boy shred musically, but the hook is unbelievable and definitely deserves to be heard by the masses. “Rocker Girl” is another track that incorporates thumping low end, vigorous axe work and absolutely raucous energy. I found the lyrics a little cheesy, but it’s still a really cool song that shouldn’t be skipped.
I did, however, find some songs that felt forced and way too formulated for my taste. The first single and video is for the playful and saucy “Do Her Wrong.” Even with its fun beat, peppy groove and over the top lyrics, it’s really one of the only tracks that sounds like it was specifically written to be a single. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and I know a lot of bands do it, but I believe there are a number of other tracks on the album that would’ve better represented the band’s powerful sound than this one. “Erase Those Days” is the first of three slower songs found on the record, and it’s about as “ballad-by-numbers” as it gets. “Bianca” is another slow song that might be lyrically powerful, but, just like “Erase Those Days”, it’s way too formulaic in my opinion. Closing out the disc is the final snoozer named “Shooting Star.” Bland guitars, boring drums, stereotypical lyrics and mild electronics all accompany Sanchez to the border of absolute mediocrity.
Even with a few stink bombs, all is not lost with Love Is In The Missile. And although these five guys aren’t the most original band in the world, they have a fantastic base that includes a thick, rich sound, solid songwriting skills (minus some serious clichés here and there), great hooks and an extremely versatile frontman. There is no doubt in my mind that the next time around, Atom Smash should and will be a force to be reckoned with in the modern rock world.
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14 Comments
August 27th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
I might give this a listen, if only because of the mention of Element Eighty. I <3 them, you know.
And if you're wrong, I will kick you. Love the review!
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August 27th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Nice review man. Samples sounds a little too generic for me…but it's not bad per se.
I sense an innuendo in the album title…or maybe it's just me. hahaha
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Luke Amos replied:
January 22nd, 2012 at 2:31 am
A little too generic for you. o.O
The irony………………..
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August 27th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Dude, there is innuendo all over this record. Ha Ha Ha! Thanks for the kind words…
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August 27th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
This sounds decent actually. I normally do not like this kind of music, but it does sound pretty good. Good job on the review.
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August 27th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
What a provocative album cover.
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August 27th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
"If you enjoy your rock harder than Hugh Hefner on an all night Cialis binge…" BRILLIANT, I DIED.
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August 30th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Sounds good to me. I will have to get a copy. Thanks for the review!
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August 30th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Yeah, this is pretty much your standard "Mainstream Rock 101" type music. Not that I have anything wrong with that genre of music, it's just…if you're looking for something out of the box, then look elsewhere. I still will check this out, even if most of the songs will get utterly destroyed because of radio. Let me guess…just by skimming the review quickly and checking out the track listing, i'm guessing "Erase Those Days" is the crossover ballad song that every teenage girl will have on their social networking site by the end of the year. Am I right, or am I right?
It is cool that they put "Sacrifice" on the album though.
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September 27th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
good review man…these guys could have a future. I Believe!
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December 14th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Saw these guys live at Buzz Bake Sale. Terrific live performance. Because they were a rather unheard of band (and were playing on the little-kid's stage) they did not have a lot of people who came to watch, but they really did not seem to care. They played their music extremely well and really got me hooked on them.
And ODDLY they seemed to skip those cliche slow songs and only play their heavy songs
I think they know just as well as anyone they arent a slow band, but i'm sure it helps sell albums and that's what the game is all about.
Great review.
Though i would rank them between 4-4.5 because i am biased by their solid live performance. Definitely not a band who only sounds good in the studio ^_^
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March 10th, 2011 at 11:59 am
No offense man, but I hate this type of review. So some of it is "formulaic." So the hell what? Does Atom Smash sound like a lot of the other bands which currently pepper alt and hard rock radio? Yeah. But you know what? Most of us rock fans could not conceivably care less. While I'm glad you enjoyed their songwriting skills and overall sound, I fail to see the point in picking apart every nuance of their album. I just bought the album this morning from Itunes, and I've already played it from beginning to end, and I loved every track! They sound like Breaking Benjamin, Shinedown, Rev Theory, Pop Evil, Three Days Grace, and a host of other currently popular bands, and I for one am glad for it. I love that sound, and these guys do it as well as any act out there. When I read reviews like this and pretty much every one ever penned for Itunes, I wonder what exactly it would take for a band to just genuinely impress the hell out of you guys. In my most humble of opinions, I think a review should focus solely on the overall enjoyability of the music, and not fret so much over the minutia and technicalities that are generally referenced during the process of deconstructing an album. Can you jam to it? Can you have a beer, stand back, and rock out with your cock out to it? If a band makes music that accomplishes these feats, then no other critique is warranted.
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Jen replied:
March 10th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
"I think a review should focus solely on the overall enjoyability of the music, and not fret so much over the minutia and technicalities that are generally referenced during the process of deconstructing an album."
You're in the minority there. If people only want to know if you can "rock out to" an album, what's the point of a review at all? What you might rock out to, someone else might not.
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Lee replied:
March 10th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
So Chance, let me get this straight. You do not want detailed information to be given to you about something that you will have to spend your hard earned money on? When you buy a car, do you simply ask if it will help you pick up "chicks" or make your mullet come back in style? Ha Ha! I mean think about how utterly ridiculous that is man. When I write a review I want the reader to hear the album through my actual words. Saying that something rocks, you can jam and/or have a beer to it is completely ludicrous and totally relative. I have seen people throw down (moshing at shows and even air guitar in bars) to bands like Collective Soul, Alanis Morissette and No Doubt. So to them they are everything that you say you look for in a band, but do you necessarily think they are that great? When a review is written properly, it should break the album down and give you a synopsis of that album…period. If you want reviews like that, then I suggest you stick with Amazon and iTunes. As for TNR, we will continue to do it THE RIGHT WAY.
Sorry, but we aren't going to agree on this subject at all. But hey, at least we both can agree that Atom Smash are pretty freakin' cool.
Thanks for the comment.
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