Artist: Mower
Album: Make It A Double
Genre: Rock/Reggae
Label: Suburban Noize

Every Now and then an album comes along that really makes you reevaluate the way look at music. Think about the first time you heard a song from The Beatles past the top 40 singles. You know, those back album tracks that are really experimental and works in a way you never thought music could. It opens your mind and drives you to find more new sounds. However, not every album or record can work the same magic. The new album from Mower, a hard rock outfit from Suburban Noize Records, does the exact opposite.

With a title like Make It A Double it probably wouldn’t surprise any listener to find this record themed around the party lifestyle. From the cliche artwork that makes for a poor attempt to emulate “hard living.” From the overly dramatic “metal meets street” clothes to the martini glasses, bullet holes, and uzis. Yes, uzis. There is not a single redeeming quality to the cover and the music it’s meant to represent is just as deplorable.

Splitting the album into two part, Mower took what could normally be a dreadful attempt at one genre of music and decided to simply put out a dismal attempt at two genres. The first half of the record is heavy, fast paced punk rock with nu metal attributes sprinkled on top for added boredom. Through mindless chugs/scream fests like “The Start” and “The Song We Don’t Speak Of” the band covers an array of topics, mainly surrounding ideals of a lifestyle neither they nor their target market ever lives. The music is a putrid attempt at heavy with nearly zero production quality and the overall result is more nauseam than hard partying tunes for late nights and pick ups. It’s simply dreadful.

Now, the second half of the album shows some promise, but still fails to deliver. Going from the heavy side of their “art” to a more relaxed mood, Mower uses the last few tracks to take stabs, and I mean near literal stabs, at the reggae music style Sublime made famous in 1994. However, unlike Sublime’s mellow jams about life and learning from mistakes, Mower takes us on much more of a bender induced trip and fall through the world of reggae. Nothing specifically terrible other than the overall sound and style of the group. The guitars are predictable, the lyrics unbearable, and the overall production completely void of bass or treble [though I’m unsure of how the managed to do that].

Suburban Noize have made a name for taking artists outside the normal realm of “label material” and giving them a well deserved shot at the national spotlight. This has produced some phenomenal talent, but there has been a grave error when it comes to Mower. Make It A Double was most likely named to reference partying and the group’s attempt at a split genre release, but all it does in the end is give you a prescription to forget ever having to sit through this depressing attempt at edgy music. Avoid at all costs. Please.

Score: 2/10

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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