One Way Mirror - One Way Mirror Review
Posted by Dan Marsicano on 08.22.2008
One Way Mirror is an up-and-coming metal band comprised of members from Soilwork, Mnemic, and Scarve. With a more melodic sound on display, does the band impress hardcore metal fans that only know the brutal side of the members?
1. Destination Device-3:53
2. As You Are Now-4:19
3. ReDream-4:38
4. Danger Calling-3:50
5. Empty Spaces-4:10
6. Deprived Of Connection-3:51
7. Keeping Me Away-5:50
8. Sockracer-4:31
9. 21st Century-4:37
10. Relax-3:55
11. Liberation-4:18
The Review
One Way Mirror is a metal band comprised of members from Mnemic, Scarve, and Soilwork. Anybody who follows underground metal would tell you that judging by the band’s I mentioned above, the listener would expect a fast, furious, and technical offering on the band’s self-titled debut album. Those people would be dead wrong, as One Way Mirror is a different beast than most metal fans may expect.
One Way Mirror is more melodic and rock-accessible, something that could appeal to a wide range of fans. The album has a modern sound to it, one that would appeal to fans of both rock and metal. It’s an album that takes a whole bunch of genres and mixes them into a Crockpot of tasty, if somewhat unoriginal, musical beef stew.
“Destination Device” and “As You Are Now” are the opening tracks that basically introduce what the rest of the album will sound like. Most of the songs are structured similarly, leading to a feeling of repetition by the end. The verses are usually quite heavy, with a heavy bass presence, plenty of throaty growls, and buzz saw riffing before slowing things down for a cleanly sung, upbeat chorus. It reminds me of a lighter melodic death metal sound, one that In Flames has become famous for.
The band doesn’t experiment too much with their sound, only adding industrial influences in a few tracks (“Sockracer,” “As You Are Now”). There is “Empty Spaces,” the band’s “ballad” with decent clean vocals and a subtle acoustic guitar in the background.
Most of the songs are solid, but the problem is that many of them blend together; leading listeners to hear what sounds like the same song multiple times. When the band tries to expand the length near the six minute mark, as they do on “Keeping Me Away,” the redundancy of the music becomes more evident. Some shorter songs, or more guitar solos, would have helped for a more worthy listen.
I will have to say, the band does end One Way Mirror on a high note. Their cover of the oh-so-classic Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax” is a great version, one that ups the aggression, while retaining the cheesiness of the original track. “Liberation” is a fantastic closer, bookended by a great solo and a memorable conclusion.
Bideau keeps the death metal growls he became known for in his previous bands to a minimum, employing many different vocal styles, including clean vocals that sound eerily similar to Korn frontman Jonathan Davis and Three Days Grace singer Adam Gontier. Verbeuren maintains the steady hands he is known for, but doesn’t go too technical or over-the-top, save for a few memorable moments (outro of “ReDream”). David and Franck Potvin are a decent guitar duo that plays some solid riffs, but the solos are standard fare. Loic Colin’s bass work is decent, but he basically follows the guitars throughout the album.
One Way Mirror is full of unfulfilled potential, as most debut albums are. The band has the harsh verses/clean choruses that has made many modern bands famous, especially in the metalcore genre, but doesn’t add anything new to the table. The band members are talented, judging by their respective bands, and they seem to be having a good time, but having a good time doesn’t always equal a great album. If you a fan of the other bands the members are involved in, you probably won’t like One Way Mirror. One Way Mirror seems to be appealing to a mainstream metal/rock crowd and only time will tell if they embrace One Way Mirror.
The 411: The self-titled debut album from One Way Mirror is decent, but largely unmemorable and forgettable. Even after multiple listens, I can really only pick out two tracks as being worthwhile, and that would be the two closing tracks "Relax" and "Liberation." Everything else blurs together to create a body of music that sounds like everything you have heard before. The album won't appeal to fans of their respective bands, except maybe Soilwork fans. You fans might like this, but everybody else may find themselves bored and uncaring of the eleven tracks on display.
