MOTOGRATER
Desolation
3.5/5
It’s been quite a while before anyone so much as heard a peep from the US Nu-Metal collective Motograter. You may remember the band debuting back in 2003 with their self-titled album and the first that anyone had ever heard of Ivan Moody, who as we all know is now (but he keeps saying that he’s going to leave every five minutes, so go figure) the frontman of Five Finger Death Punch, an act that some love and others love to hate. It’s a sore subject, so I won’t even go there. In particular, I found the band’s self-titled to be quite strong and a bit more unique than what similar acts like Slipknot, Mudvayne and Mushroomhead were doing around that time. This was long-before Moody made Tapout friendly beat em’ up anthems laced with boyband friendly pop choruses. The electronic edge of the band also helped to cement them from similar acts, even though they never managed to retain the commercial success of their peers. After Moody left, the band found another vocalist that sounded nearly identical to Moody for their 2009 “Pre-Release EP.” Upon listening to it, I was almost under the impression that I was listening to watered down Five Finger Death Punch and not the Motograter I remember. Fast forward to 2017 and we have a brand new release, which we might as well consider to the be the first disc from this outfit in nearly twenty years. The record was crowdfunded and also funded on Bandcamp through a “Name Your Own Price” copy of the band’s previous discography tacked into one digital album. The debut, Indy EP and the Pre-Release were all added to this package, which I’m sure sold just enough to help with funding.
The end product however, is much different than any of us were expecting. Though hefty growls still remain as well a slew of electronic bits here and there, I feel like I’m listening to a lighter form of American Head Charge with bits of Flaw and Breaking Benjamin. I could probably go much further back, but the main meat of this sandwich seems to mix the band’s previous Nu-Metal formula with that of American hard rock, the same kind you’ll find all over the radio. Now that I think of it, I’m reminded quite a bit of a now defunct hard rock act by the name of Pressure 4-5. I suppose if one were to mash Flaw and Pressure 4-5 together with some harsh vocal sections here and there, you’d get the kind of sound that matches Motograter today. Sometimes this style can work in the band’s favor though, like with outlier “Bleeding Through” which doesn’t sound anything like you would expect for the title and actually comes off as a bit of a haunting ballad. The equally catchy ballad “Daggers” is yet another reason that this band could catapult to some level of success, due to it’s catchy chorus and twinkling melodic synths. Both pieces are good representations of what made a band work back in the late nineties and early ‘00s, so there is a very good chance that this formula will benefit them today. The problem is that we’re in a different age, where videos like “Down” and “Suffocate” won’t pick up the same level of representation that they had in the MTV days, so unless Netflix starts adding music video channels to their service, it’s going to be more difficult for acts like this and the newly invigorated Flaw, Dope and American Head Charge to get the kind of promotion that they need.
Is America even still open to Nu-Metal? Well, maybe if it doesn’t sound so much like Nu-Metal, which is one thing that Desolation seems to capture quite well with it’s core crunches, removal of rapped lyrics and those light catchy cleans that I mentioned earlier. It’s a bit similar to the groove metal of Fear Factory, but doesn’t pack quite as much of a punch. In the same sentence, I wouldn’t quite call it a Digimortal failure either. A track like “Locust” proves that this band can still perform what it takes to be relevant in the modern age, but at the same time this alt/groove style will not sit well with everyone, including the metal elite who’ve already passed this review by on name alone (at least, more than likely). On my first listen, the disc sort of flew in one ear and out the other, mainly due to the fact that far too many of these tracks sounded all too similar to each other. Though giving it this second listen, I find that there might just be something here for people not looking for a mathematical equation in terms of composition. Desolation was made for people that would be more than happy with a thick mound of groove, a couple of guitar solos and most of all – catchy choruses that nearly saturate the whole of the disc right down to it’s ending note. I’ve heard several albums that sound just like it, but there are a lot of people who really won’t care just so long as it sounds good, which I can understand. Motograter’s Desolation isn’t a new approach by any means, but it definitely isn’t a weak performance either. They knew what they were doing and it seems to have come together quite beautifully, even though it still has a fair share of rough edges. For a band that named themselves after some weird musical instrument that they created as a gimmick, they could be doing far worse than this. (The Grim Lord)