We are a generation that grew up with Mario, The Power Pad and the o so godly Nintendo Entertainment System as companions. It was just a matter of time until this part of our lives would be digitally inserted into our music. And although bands like The Advantage and The Minibosses pay homage by doing straight up covers of video game soundtracks, HORSE The Band manages to use it as just a part of their sound, instead of the whole package. Unfortunately, like the Game Genie and Power Glove, R. Borlax is a novelty that at first seems really awesome but begins fading soon after your warranty does. I would suggest renting this, but unlike video games, CDs aren't available yet for this type of borrowing service.
It'd probably be a good idea for this band to change their name. Not even that dramatically necessarily. One subtle change that could really be nice involves the first word not being in all caps. On the other hand, one thing that I would not change would be their ability to create some of the oddest sounding parts in musical history. This becomes quite evident in Cutsman, a song written about a boss character from the Megaman series. We are immediately treated to a sample from Wizard starring Fred Savage involving the fabled Power Glove. What we have after two minutes of decent metalcore is a heavy fucking breakdown that in essence is "jud jud" stylized, but is somehow put together with keyboards that sound like an ice level in a dungeon game. Far too often they attempt to create music in which the keyboards and non-keyboard music go together, but when combining these two sounds together when they don't work is when they make the best sound.
For the most part the vocals are pretty tolerable, but at times the screaming begins to remind one of a really drunk uncle singing karaoke attempting to seduce the irritated waitress. It's cool how he tries to do so many things with his voice though, from whispers to high girl screams to hardcore yelling. The vocal effect used in "Big Blue Violence" when grouped with the psychedelic keyboard breakdown suspiciously sounds like the song "Hunted By A Freak" on the new Mogwai album Happy Songs for Happy People. But it would be pretty hard for them to copy each other because of when the songs were recorded and such. Almost as goofy as the vocals themselves are the lyrics, with lines like "brighter than the stars themselves and sweeter than ice cream" they border on silly and serious. It would be nice if they went over the edge and went super ridiculously wacky, more emphasis put on the idea of things being sweeter than ice cream.
The first song I ever heard from HORSE The Band was Bunnies, and at that very moment my mouth dropped to the floor in surprise of what they created. Finally after two years of wondering what happened to them this LP arose. They remade "Bunnies", "In The Wake Of The Bunt" and "The Immense Defecation Of The Buntaluffigus", making R. Borlax only 7 new tracks for those who have been fans for more than the posting of "Cutsman" on their mp3.com site. It was surprising that they didn't do "The Legend Of The Flower Of The Woe" over again, being the best song that they previously had recorded.
If you have a tattoo of Kid Icarus, find yourself arguing whether Mario or Sonic would win in a fight, or consider up up down down left right left right a b select start to be one of the most influential codes of your life, this is worth checking out for nostalgia's sake alone. Otherwise, you'll find yourself with a pretty average release with some really awesome parts thrown in here and there.
