April 12th, 2012 
James Shotwell 
Artist: Make Me Famous
Album: It’s Now Or Never
Genre: Hard Rock
Label: Sumerian
Sumerian Records recently signed Ukrainian natives Make Me Famous, and there has been quite a bit of buzz and hype surrounding the band. I’ll say that I have been following them for quite some time now, I was intrigued by their singles “Once You Killed A Cow, You Gotta Make A Burger” & “I’m A Traitor No One Does Care” (at least that’s how it was originally) and was a fan ever since.
To start this off, I want to mention that I have listened to the entire album multiple times now. Not necessarily because I “love” it or “can’t get enough of it”, I am deciding how I truly feel about this deep down inside of me where feelings sometimes emerge from. Overall, the record is not bad, and there are certainly some very notable tracks. I just can’t get over the fact that they sound so much like Asking Alexandria, who I love by the way, and it somewhat bothers me that they remind me of them so much. When looking for a new band to sink my teeth into I try to look for unique songs, clever lyrics and solid musicianship. I can find some of these elements, and this band has great potential, but I’m not sure they have made it there quite yet.
The record begins well, “Blind Date 101” has a little bit of everything to amp you up for what’s to come. Singing, group chanting, Serj’s deep growls and an electro infused breakdown. What more could you possibly want? Their single “Make It Precious” is the second track, which is still one of my favorites. Starting off a full length with a familiar song for long time fans is a great way to suck people in right away.
Tyler Carter is featured in “Inception”, his melodic voice mixes well with the song and is a fantastic way to expose his following to something they might not normally listen to (referring to Make Me Famous). The next track worth mentioning is their other single “We Know It’s Real”, this was our first taste of a brand new song and gave us a glimpse into what we could expect from the entire record. The song has heavy unclean vocals, a little more chanting and some excellent guitar work that makes this one of the most memorable tracks on the album.
15 tracks on one record is quite a lot for a band in this genre, average record lengths would be about 10 or 11 tracks. Albums like this have the unique problem of producing enough compelling tracks to fill up all that space and not be crap by the end of the record. Though there’s at least one song that’s not so memorable, “She Hunted Me”, the middle of the record is solid enough to keep it from crashing and burning because of one song that’s not so great. A prime example of this would be “I Am A Traitor’, might be an older track but it’s a great song that’s a little bit more unique from all the other songs on the album. Check it out if you haven’t already.
The last tracks on the album don’t really stand out, but they are worth checking out. I am a sucker for almost any acoustic song so the very last track being the acoustic version of “Make It Precious” is an appreciated but unnecessary addition to the album. It maybe would be a better idea to just come out with a deluxe version and offer multiple remastered/remixed/acoustic versions of songs. We like that (or just me?) I DO disagree with the same album coming out twice…but that’s for another day.
In future efforts from this band I would like to see a little bit more originality, and see if they can step up to push their sound and skills to the limit. They have the talent and now they have the tools available to them to create a unique piece of work. I suggest reading their lyrics, though there are some strange grammatical issues, the lyrics themselves are pretty different and is a positive sign that they have what it takes to take this opportunity they have and run with it. If you are looking for something that’s a little bit familiar, and similar to bands you may already have in your music collection (Asking Alexandria and I See Stars) then there is no good reason to pass this album up.
SCORE: 7/10
Review written by: Kriston McConnell
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is worth a 0/10
The song ‘she hunted me’ is probably one of the best for the reason it doesn’t sound like asking alexandria