In Plain View - Starts pretty effective (good opener) with some electronics and some ASOP-ish riff. Then throws in melody resembling serbian '90s pop band. Random fucked up chorus, random average chorus. Some pretty cool Come Clarity style riffs midway through the song. Random singing again.
5/10 Mediocre song with some cool riffs.
Everything's gone - Some death metal riffs, some nu metal riffs. Nothing special, but still more aggressive. Cool chorus with powerfull singing and much energy. Repeat 'till song ends.
5/10 Mediocre song with great chorus.
Paralyzed - Opening with some cool riffs. Then going into some weird electronic stuff (pretty nice though). Unfortunately Anders shits all over music with terrible vocal lines. Interesting chorus. OK solo. Very modern Bjorn-like (both rhythm and melody). Song has very common song structure (boriiing) and nice powerfull ending.
7/10 Good song, with some bad vocals.
Through Oblivion - Electro pop with minor guitar elements. Truth be told, this one seems like one of better executed song on SC, at least songwriting wise.
6/10 Average song, catchy at times, some cool electronics.
With eyes wide open - Starts like very soft, then does some nice slow melodic riffs. Anders does a better job on verses here. But damn, chorus is gay as fuck. Could be better now that he finally nailed how to write verses. Some more melodic work towards the end (somewhere between softer melodeath and thing you hear on mainstream radio). Again, very common song structure.
7/10 Cool song. Nothing groundbreaking but compared to other ones...
Siren Charms - Opens with riff thingy I like. Anders does some nice vocal melodies (fucks up a bit at the end, but OK). Song then takes a weird turn with some riffs and boring solo which kind of ruins the stuff for me. Some cool guitar and electro melodies in the background towards the end.
6/10 Mostly interesting with some bad parts.
When the World Explodes - Random generic riffing, Anders screaming is painful to listen. Female singer does fantastic work. Kind of pop turns opera with sweet solo and cool electro landscape in the background. Why didn't they do "heavy" parts of the song to the quality of the "softer" part is beyond me. Opportunity for a great song ruined.
7/10 Cool song with some good (lady and electronics win the day) and some bad parts
Rusted Nail - Maybe the most traditional sounding (sounds like leftover from SOAPF the song). Soft intro, annoying wah solo, annoying verse, powerful chorus, annoying verse (damn, these song structures again...), mediocre solo, powerful chorus, boring riff. OK, at least now I know why did they put this one as a first single. It's a shit song, but it has the best chorus on album and it is IF-ish.
5/10 Mediocre song with some bad songwriting and arrangements. Mixed bag (goes from terrible to excellent).
Dead Eyes - Slower (melodeath?) riff. Kind of metal I guess. Anders does verses that leave me with no emotion. Chorus is very pop-rockish. Good melody (God these are rare) towards the end. Then song goes back to usual Anders killing listeners with boredom.
5/10 Mediocre song that has nothing interesting except that one abso-fucking-lutely great melody (great arrangement too).
Monsters in the Ballroom - Oh, no! It's STYE riffs all over again. Theeeen - straight back to radio rock in chorus. Comical "solo". Repeat these parts over and over again.
4/10 - Not good. Though Oblivion beats the shit out of this one.
Filltered Truth - Starts like HIM. Goes into mediocre verse. Does that one excellent melodic riff. Goes into happy but catchy chorus. Does happy but decent solo. Goes into chorus (yaaay, we know this structure). Does that riff. Ends with farting.
7/10 - Decent song. Some things good, some things not.
All in all this gives us: 5.8/10
Sounds about right. The whole album is one big, badly written affair. It is honestly worse then I expected it to be after hearing Rusted Nail.
Production is good, and that is the best thing that can be said about SC.
It tries hard to be pop/rock. Then it tries to stay METALZ in few song. Does better job trying to be pop/rock.
Anders can't write pop verses. Okay, I know that he's been doing screaming, mumbling, half-deathrapping though whole career but this is just terrible.
Even when there are some songs with potential they are fucked up with some weird part, or some boring riff, or some questionable singing. I really don't know if I like even one whole song from this album. There are some good parts, riffs, choruses etc. Maybe enough for 2 or 3 songs. The rest of the material is garbage. Oh, and song structures are boring as hell.
Can't see myself listening to this album in the future. Now that I've heard the whole album, I started to appreciate Rusted Nail and Through Oblivion more.
Sorry IF, this one is shit.
That's what happens when you don't check your essays for mistakes.
