Swan
““Pathogen””
(Synthetic Biological Research)
Swan is sort of Man is the Bastard meets Tool, but in a good way. Two voices during most of the songs. One is a scream the other a higher pitched, occasionally on key, possibly harmonizing, defiantly defining flow. Not exactly in tune with the happy crappy struggling to survive local San Diego punk scene, they give the somewhat tired new metal sound some life. Including samples in almost all seven songs on this album (more like an EP), I found myself wishing that the keyboard sounds were a little higher and more defined, and a few more songs could have helped. The CD is out on Synthetic Biological Research, which I’m assuming is their own label. That’s actually the most surprising thing about this band: they aren’’t fucking signed! Seeing what comes in to Modern Fix from music labels…..man, this is better then 2/3’s of that shit. Honestly, this sound that other bands try, usually ends up flunking into the rap-core, I-wish-I-was-slipknot garbage.
