The music world depends on artists borrowing from other artists; listening to their music, picking up on new sounds that can enrich their own and, hopefully, making it their own. However the practice can fall flat: Good, classic sounds can be executed in a generally terrible manner, embarrassing not only the genre but also the artist responsible. She Wants Revenge is, unfortunately, one of these perpetrators.
Having established their reputation for gothic, macabre synth-rock in their first album, Perfect Kiss (2006), the duo branches out in their Oct. 9 release, This Is Forever, to include little not much more. SWR continues to borrow sounds from such '80s classic "mope" and synth bands as Depeche Mode, Joy Division and the Cure, but saps them of their energy, leaving what could be an effectively sparse sound just very boring.
The main fault of the band lies with the horribly dampening effect of Justin Warfield's vocals. This was true in their first album as well: their first single, "Tear You Apart," had interesting synth beats and had something of an echoing sound. That was for the first 40 seconds: After that, Warfield injects himself into the song and suddenly we begin to question: Is he kidding? Will he snap out of the monotone he seems to be deviating all of five notes from? The answer to both is no, and the same issue resounds in their This Is Forever: The instrumentals are great. The whining, monotonous vocals kill the sound they try to carry.
The best track on the album is the introduction, "First, Love." A clapping, heavy beat with melodic synth and the unexpected whisper of a jazz-like piano all make for an electro-orchestra effect, one that is not only acceptable by the genre's standards but even innovative. I enjoyed it enough that I dreaded the moment Warfield's vocals would interrupt the spell, but they never did appear. This first made me suspect the vocals as the culprit.
The pattern repeats itself throughout the album: Rarely do the instrumentals disappoint (though that could be because anything with an infectious enough beat can be appreciated), but over and over again the whining, atonal vocals distract from clever synth sounds. There are moments when he begins to carry a tune, for example, in the fourth track, "Walking Away." In those moments the songs are vastly improved. However he rarely deviates for more than a phrase. The other glaring problem is the lyrics: Gothic poetry is difficult enough to execute, but it is a disaster when recited in monotone such that every awkward phrasing (including tasteless sexual scenarios) or grammatical curiosity is clearly audible. Bad lyrics can be masked by enthusiastic singing, and bad singing can be saved by good lyrics: SWR does the worst of both.
With such a rich background of influence, including some of the most creative genres to come from the age of rock's genesis, I had hoped the band would evolve their sound farther from the ineffectively sparse and repetitive one they came on the scene with. Granted, a year is not a long time in which to evolve. However, there is hope: it is painfully obvious how much improved SWR's sound would be if the vocals were excised and replaced with something melodic. Perhaps, given some more time to reflect before producing their next CD, SWR will realize this and put out an album that fulfills their potential. Until then, This Is Forever is not worth listening to unless your hand is poised on the "next" button, ready to skip to the next song when Warfield starts his droning.
