The Birthday Massacre - Imaginary Monsters EP Review

Posted by Wyatt E. on 08.15.2011

A small series of remixes still yields disappointing results.

I know, I know, it's only a list of rock, pop and metal that some nerds got together and compiled for the sake of fun. Anyway, that in mind, here's a brief list of albums that didn't make the recent Top 50 Albums Of The 411 Era that I'm still all whiny about:

I Get Wet - Andrew WK
Thunder, Lightning, Strike - The Go! Team
Riot On An Empty Street - Kings Of Convenience
Guitar Romantic - The Exploding Hearts
I Am a Bird Now - Antony and the Johnsons
Barton Hollow - The Civil Wars

All right, I'm not really that grumpy. I just really like recommending music that I feel gets overlooked, which I'm... fairly sure makes me an anti-hipster? Do those exist?

Oh, yeah, I'm on Twitter now! That's still a thing, right??

OK, review time.





1. Forever - 3:56
2. Burn Away - 3:43
3. Left Behind - 2:36
4. Pale" (Kevvy Mental & Dave Ogilvie 'Rubber Unicorn' Mix) - 4:09
5. Control" (Tweaker Mix) - 3:32
6. Shallow Grave" (Combichrist 'Good For Her' Mix) - 4:33
7. Pins and Needles" (SKOLD Mix) - 5:01
8. Shallow Grave" (Assemblage 23 Mix) - 4:24



Whenever there's a predominately male band fronted by a female, the temptation to make a special focus on that female is hard to resist. Don't believe me? Well, let's see. Paramore, No Doubt, Evanescence, Blondie, Aqua, Missing Persons, The Cranberries, The Cardigans, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Eurythmics, The Distillers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Plasmatics... the list goes on and on (don't worry, I won't stretch this out to Chris Jericho levels). Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that the frontmen aren't guilty of having a little extra spotlight - hell, Marilyn Manson went and named the whole damn band after himself, and of course you can make up your own Bono joke here - but I've always felt that this extra focus is never really the decision of the frontwomen. Look at Hayley Williams, who, despite all the controversy with the Farro brothers, seems to really want Paramore to be a band.

And thus, we come to the Birthday Massacre, who began life as a somewhat dark take on what was essentially a modern day synth-pop sound. Pretty 80s, pretty goth, and also pretty effective. And once again, we come to a band with a bunch of dudes fronted by a woman - in this case, Chibi, who has pipes, and gets the music across pretty well, but has somewhat little in the way of distinction. In fact, it might be because of this that the band avoids having the above problem - they manage to form so cohesively as a unit that there's little question that they're a band. With all that said, it doesn't matter all that much in the big picture.

The Birthday Massacre's sound has gone from that synth sound to what on Pins And Needles, their last effort, became a glossy, guitar-laden, but no less synth-heavy rock sound. The thing is, outside of this sound, the album also showed that the band have little in the way of surprises. Verse-chorus-verse structures and plain guitar riffs are the status quo, and sometimes it works, but sometimes it fades in the memory. You get the idea; the kind of band who sound fine while they're playing, but rarely stick out in the memory unless you're a total sucker for this sound. Not that it's bad or anything, just... a little pedestrian in the long run.

And now we come to Imaginary Monsters, which is a remix EP, sort of - it actually kicks off with three original songs beforehand. This has the potential to be interesting, since I personally first came into knowledge of the Birthday Massacre's existence due to their remix efforts for the the world's premier techno-metal-punk-hip hop-shock rock band, Mindless Self Indulgence, all of which were incredibly good (especially for "Never Wanted To Dance"). So how does the Birthday Massacre handle having their work turned inside out?

The first three tracks are newly recorded Birthday Massacre songs, and they deviate little from the path already paved by the band: decent, albeit unremarkable, synth-heavy goth rock, with just enough going on to keep it enjoyable while it's playing, but not enough overall for it to make a lasting impact. A bigger problem is that as time goes by, less and less separates this band from Evanescence, which I'm sure wasn't this band's inspiration for starting, although Chibi's not as showy as a vocalist. If you've been a fan of their stuff up until now, well, this will be up your alley too.

A much bigger problem is, well, the remixes. I'll be frank - none of the people involved really bring out any new dimensions to the band's music. Not that they're those cheap kinds of remixes that just stick a dance beat in there and expect it to be a mover and shaker in the clubs. You know those remixes. No, these are disappointing in a different way. Take Tim Skold's mix of "Pins & Needles," which hits with a familiar thud and has an extra industrial tinge added to it that somehow doesn't seem far removed from what the band is capable of releasing on their own. The new mix of "Pale" suffers the same fate - it's music cut from the same cloth as territory this band has covered ages ago.

One good mix is courtesy of electronic veteran Assemblage 23, that presents the band with a remix of "Shallow Grave" that brings out some true dance music possibilities, without losing the industrial edge the band has always had. It's actually the most vibrant song here, pulsating with a great beat and rich production (the remixer in question here is very worth checking out, as he's been making good caliber dance music for quite some time).

The 411: The Birthday Massacre have somehow managed to putter along for many years now, slowly making progress as far as evolution goes, and yet rarely ever raising a tremendous amount of concern. They simply don't have the strong material to be major players, even if their music sounds fine while it's on. The fact that remixes didn't manage to bring out much in the way of new sides of the band makes this a bit disheartening.

Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]