Review: Design The Skyline – Nevaeh

“Design the Skyline are the lolcats of metal…”

Artist Name: Design the Skyline
Album Name: Nevaeh
Year: 2011
Genre: Deathcore
Label: Victory Records

As harsh as it might sound, Design the Skyline are the lolcats of metal. For some reason, they’ve been picked on and put in the same category as Brokencyde – maybe it’s also due to the band members looking like a scene kid’s one true love? Regardless of their appearance, we’re here to talk about their debut album, Nevaeh, right? Well, it sucks, too.

The first bone I need to pick with DTS is their labelling of the album as experimental metal; I have to disagree with this entirely, because it’s the same as Limp Bizkit referring to their tunes as progressive metal. Constantly slipping and falling back into the deathcore trap, Nevaeh is dominated by sluggish chugs, predictable breakdowns and Cookie Monster vocals (does this sound experimental to anyone? I don’t think so). Okay, occasionally, DTS do attempt to teleport into the noise rock realm and play off the feedback and the wall of sound effect, but they fail miserably as it sounds muddled and meaningless. Thankfully, it’s all over after 30 minutes…

Looking at the positives, the best tracks on this release are the softer instrumental numbers, ‘Reverie’ and ‘Nevaeh’, which are free from being damaged by what I can only deem as this band’s unexplainable desire to be heavy, even if it means forsaking the actual music (if they actually toned themselves down here and there, they wouldn’t be too bad). Apart from that, the only other song that grasps you is the generic ‘Break Free from Your Life’, which follows the metalcore blueprint to the last letter.

Bluntly speaking, Design the Skyline haven’t done themselves any favours with Nevaeh. Back to the drawing board for DTS…

Best Tracks: ‘Break Free from Your Life’, ‘Reverie’, and ‘Nevaeh’

30/100

- Frankie Styxx