The Birthday Massacre - Hide And Seek Review

Track one is some awesome dance pop shit. The synths here are fucking beautiful, and that voice, holy shit. I'm so glad I was completely wrong about it being 2spooky shit. It was late at night and the first five seconds coupled with the opening noises deceived me. Too much /x/ and not enough sunlight makes Anon a paranoid boy. The lyrics in this track are another strong point, because unlike most pop songs, the lyrics aren't too superficial or try-hard poetry. These lyrics are in that sweet spot, and that's a rarity I can enjoy.

Track two is significantly heavier in tone, and sounds like it's got nu metal roots. However, it drops into some of those lovely vocals that we heard on the last song, and the synth pattern becomes something resembling beauty in a synthrock-ish way. Even through she's doing that Eveanessence thing, it's a nice track.

Track three starts off with some vaguely creepy sounds at the very beginning, and a sort of technological future pattern in the synth. However the track, while landing between the first and second tracks somewhere on the hardness scale, still commands a certain darkness to it. Her vocals are devoid of that crunk/wanna be goth feel though, and simply shine through as amazing sounding and very complimentary of the music. The song's louder parts, which consist of synth blasts, make me feel as though this would be a really great song for some sort of grim rave scene.

Synthetic bass opens up track four, and the lyrics here are kinda irking me here with the typical love song vibe, but that's not hugely impacting me here as the beat rears up and manages to capture me more. The synth rides in like lasers and waves of electronic sparks. As the song goes into the second verse, there's a shiny twinkling of higher pitched synth noises (I have a feeling this is all synth, so get used to seeing that word a ton.) While the lyrics are somewhat more contrived on this song, her voice has kept from becoming that nu metal shit again and stays sublime, so I can overlook the superficiality. Hell, the lyrics are even graceful, in an odd sort of way. Catchy as fuck for certain.

Track five is oddly funky at the beginning, and then breaks into a space-pop reminiscent house feel. I enjoy how a lot of the down parts of the songs have chill, dark house influences when the "rock" part of the synth isn't smashing through. The vocals are still stellar, and the lyrics here are still holding onto track four's sort of superficiality. It's a breakup song, but this time it's a bit creepier; guess she's stalking the dude who broke up with her? I'm not too torn up over that as 1. that's kinda hot 2. the lyrics handle it well enough with her voice and are subtly subtle and not 2emo. Giving me a nice "full moon in the suburb that faces some dark countryside" feel. I can imagine this chick in full lolth spider-vampire robes and looking seductive as all fuck, while also being completely psychopathic. Is that 2edgy? We may never know.

But we can always dream...

*ahem* Track six! This band has a habit of making synth noises I can't even place. This is like muted bells over some drones and then blasting in with some rampaging guitars, cooling down to let the singer do her thing again. Shadows coming up again, which I guess is gonna kind of be a theme with these people. They're not being middle school poetry club about it though, so the song's not damaged. What the fuck is that noise they use so often? It's like a mix of a hollow, metallic whistle, and muted cowbell. It sounds good, but it's driving me mad not knowing what it is. Oh, and the lyrics have some blood motifs. Since they're not whined or screamed and delivered by a really nice voice, I'm letting it slide, but the lyrical department's taking a few hits due to this.

Track seven breaks open with some traditional rave sounds, and some rolling hardcore guitar sounds. Her voice positively rings on this track, while that elusive synth noise returns. The breakdown in the second half of the track has some ambient space noises while the bass and "wub-bu-bub-bub" constant in a lot of electropop plays in the background over some droning. Song ends strong on some sythetic organ.

Track eight opens with some almost chiptune like synth. It delves into a sort of sanguine beauty, and carries on even with some synth bass dropping in now and then, dragging down the lighter feel of this song. I hesitate to call anything on this record light, as a darkness is carried all throughout it, but it's light by the rest of the record's standards. Even as the chorus erupts into sound, it still is somewhat... creamier than the rest of the songs I've heard so far.

Track nine is making me regret my choice of letting track 8 be called the lightest song. This one still has that dark gravity to it, but is hardly anything like the other tracks. This has even yet to explode outward on the chorus or anywhere, really. No sudden synth eruption. There's even some real piano on here! Her voice was a whisper at the beginning, that rose to a teasing sort of soft speech. There's a mild rising towards the end, but it's hardly an explosion. The song ends downtempo, with some simple piano.

Track ten, the final track, opens with a sort of continuation from the previous track, with the sound vamped up by one, then two notches on the loudness scale. The vocals here are backed by reverb in many forms, to the point of it sounding like the choruses from The Kyteman Symphony. This track has a finality to it, as if it's aware that it's an ending track. I like that in a song, honestly. Ends off with a fade into the weird noises (like static and vague cars being beaten with crowbars) that start almost every song, and the album falls silent.

Man, that was a fun record. I'd expect it to be playing at a dance club with the lights a soft lavender being blasted about the dance floor, It was fun, and sort of made me want to start a rave of one in my lonely bedroom. ;_;

Subjective rating: 9.1/10
Objective rating: 8.2/10