Aggression, The - Whitelineoverride

It seems that this 4 piece band from New York had everybody expect their mother help them out on this release. A veritable melting pot of northeastern coldwave band members (including Chris Randall of Sister Machine Gun, Jamie Duffy and Jason Novak of Acumen Nation, and Van Christie of Die Warzau fame) aided in the recording and performance of The Aggression’s Whitelineoverride CD. You would be lead to believe that with this many people working on a project it would be fantastic, but unfortunately it’s rather forgettable. I’m not too sure if its the fact that The Aggression aren’t willing to take any chances with their music or if there were too many hands in the mix, but either way Whitelineorverride sounds too formulated and lacks creativity. Arena85 is a guitar driven piece (as most of the tracks on this release are) with a raw sounding percussion and minimal, simplistic electronics. Desanto’s uses a combination of angst delivery and warbled pronunciation on his vocals. Actually his vocals wouldn’t be too bad if he were the lead vocalist for a heavy metal band, but placed a top of the music of The Aggression they don’t differentiate themselves from the plethora of coldwave bands that the US has spawned throughout the 90's. Airily does rely more upon the electronic elements, but again they are too simplistic and not heavy enough for my tastes. While the guitar chords on The End of Everything are catchy and the electronics do have a nice wet feel to them, the remainder of the track (especially the mixing together of the other elements) aren’t that spectacular. On Gemini Sky the guitars goes haywire while the beat remains steady. This is a track that desperately wants to be a rock and roll piece but can’t manage to tear itself away from it’s weak electronic roots. Overall I was sadly disappointed with this CD, especially after reading through the liner notes and discovering all of the outside talent that was present.