Who says synth-rock is dead? it just isn't feeling very well right now

The Birthday Massacre are two thirds of a great band. Any description of them usually throws around works like industrial. These are the bad parts, every so often the guitarists feel the need to start thrashing and when they do it hurts, because when they do the synth and electro side cuts off, I assume out of a certain musical embarrassment and a sheepish desire not to be mixed up with some bland by the books industrial thrashing for thrash's sake "heavy-ness". In the first album Violet it was quite a problem where is ruined some potentially great songs such as 'blue'. Luckily the next album Walking with Strangers has less, and fingers crossed the next album will have even less.

That's the bad part, now lets talk about why i like these guys regardless. They do the electro synth part well, really well. The word Goth also gets thrown around when describing them but pay no attention to that, it's kinda right but it will lead to mistaken preconceptions and if your anything like me, you'll start sneering reflexively. There is a sense of whimsy-meets-reality harshness that could be called goth but really shouldn't be.

I would recommend getting Walking with Strangers first and simply accepting the fact that for at two or three points your going to have to press the next button. This shouldn't deter you because the rest of the album is so good. Once you've listened to Walking with Strangers imagine that ration of 70-30 good to bad changed to 35-65 and you've a pretty good idea of what Violet sounds like.

The Birthday Massacre - Violet

The Birthday Massacre - Walking With Strangers