Monomate is a name that many in the whole "Nintendocore" scene seems to brag about, going on about how great it is. Now, as a die hard nerd, these bands do intrigue me, but when the term "Nintendocore" is stamped onto a band, typically one expects Hardcore with some Electronica elements similar to that of the music from the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy days, right? I mean, why tack "core" onto the end of it if that's not the case? Well, this is a prime exactly of kids being highly stupid and calling everything with some screaming as a Metal or a Hardcore release. Monomate does have some fantastic 8-bit Electronica going on in the background, and many of the songs sound heavy, but this release is far from Hardcore. Sadly, it is Emo. So, why the review? Because I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one out there who fell prey to this, as well as to highlight some of the better tracks off the release that actually do fall in the "Nintendocore" subgenre.
One of the problems many face when it comes to "Nintendocore" releases is how to approach the vocals, especially since it was impossible to incorporate them back in the day. Granted, some songs would require some clean singing, some games you could even picture some gutteral for darker tones, or some are just so good, there never should have been vocals in the first place. Enter this movement, and now everyone is trying hard to figure out the best method to approach this issue, and almost every style has been tackled. Unfortunately, instruments still seem the best way to go, or comepose the music into a specific style, such as how Powerglove or Horse... The Band has done, and build that element up from there. Here, Monomate has woven an album that has music that transcends both Emo and Hardcore styles. For the most part, the music itself is pretty good, and you really can't tell the difference between the styles, as for the most part it just sounds like music that comes on an old 8-bit game cartridge, but with a little more to it then just a general loop of x amount of seconds. Some of the track's have some fantastic music behind them, such as the lighter, more uplifting sound of "Fail Hill Zone, Act 1", and the darker atmosphere brought on by "Hyr00l". Grand Battle also has the greatest introduction even on a CD, which is just the opening chime from the old black and white brick Nintendo Game Boy as soon as it's turned on, slamming right into "The Surfing Song", which puts a lot of hope into the listener before the shiny Emo vocal style comes in and clashes horribly with the music.
Of course, there are tracks where the clean singing works out with the music, but just becomes generally annoying. "Fail Hill Zone, Act 1" becomes the most obvious, as this approach just becomes grating after a while. "Understudy" is proof of this, as the vocal approach utilized is the clean singing, but the vocalist attempts to sound forceful with the standard innocent Emo vocal approach in the clean singing, and it honestly just sounds like he's having some kind of temper tantrum and about to cry. The screaming performed on the album isn't bad at all, but this approach is just comical, which is sad since "Understudy" starts off strong, but quickly goes downhill, even in the music, as well as the random Anthrax-inspired section right before the breakdown. The breakdown of this, however, is the real kick in the throat as it sound great. The shouting vocals wind up being very deep through most of it, and the music going on is fantastic and makes me wish more action games had this kind of sound to them back in the day. Thne "Ira Vehementi" kicks in with a very gloomy, horror atmosphere with a traditional higher Black Metal approach, accompanied by screaming, and it's just a fantastic Hardcore/Metalcore song that gets the blood pounding and makes you wanna take an old Nintendo controller and strangle the nearest living person with it. Of course, you'll put it down as soon as "Saccharine Wasteland" kicks in, which windsk up just being a weak song that sounds hollow and missing some an important layer all around, but the clean vocals suit the flow of the song. This goes on for just way too long, and finally after a little past the half way point, the vocalist belts out another accusatory spoken word section that goes into a breakdown, and the music picks up and that layer that feels missing appears. But by then, you either skipped forward out of disgust, or you just hit stop and called it quits, and if you did the latter, you're not missing much.
The closing of Grand Battle really isn't anything all that spectacular. "Neurosis III" is a nice song that does a slow build from the start to the end and has some power to it as you go through, but the build takes forever at the start and, after "Saccharine Wasteland", chances are good you'll have no patience for it. "Generic Dudez" is actually a suiting name for that next track, as there's nothing special about it, coming off as a generic Metalcore song, but just done with the Electronica 8-bit sound that has been going on through the entire release. "Dreamland" also winds up being overkill on the whinier vocal approach, and it just sounds weak against the rather airy music of the song that seems to incorporate more of an Alternative feel to the song then anything, and as you go through the song, it just sounds ridiculously bad, even for a filler track. The same even goes for the title track, "Grand Battle", which comes off as a very weak offering compared to some of the material presented on this album, except now the music is made longer and more annoying, but the lyrics are rather comical about a confrontation with a cheap final boss in a video game, and the vocalist's reaction and response to it, which winds up being the only saving grace to that song.
Grand Battle only has a few songs that genuinely fall into the Hardcore sound, while many others just sound like an Emo approach with a clean vocal style that is simply irritating and grating after a while. Up to "Ira Vehementi", the album has great music, even when the vocals aren't, but after that, the album goes downhill quickly and becomes absolutely pointless to listen to outside of the angry lyrics of "Grand Battle". If you grew up in the world of Game Boy, Genesis, and Nintendo, then chances are good the music here will greatly appeal to you, and it features a diversity throughout the album that will appeal to many different musical fans, but, in the end, many of these songs should have just been left as instrumentals.
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