Here at antisteez, we like to hype you up about a little place we call, THE FUCKING 305. Yes, that’s right. Miami. We put on for our city here at antisteez which is why we had to rep hard for 305 rock and local band/heroes ALUKARD and their newly released album, ONE SHOT. When they sent us an advanced copy of the album, both Lou and myself wanted to write the review. So after a little bit of tug-of-war, coupled with a few, “I’ll do it. NO! I’ll do it” convos, we decided that we would both review the album in a he said/she said way. After all, ALUKARD is a band for dudes and for the ladies. Made up of members Level (vocals/guitar), Zaigone (percussion), Jason Pupo (bass), Steven (guitar) and MC, E. Grizzly, ALUKARD will bust out your eardrums and win you over with their intense, in-your-face sound. Check out our review of this rock-heavy, hip-hop savvy album below and then come out and peep the record release at (((SHAKE))) on Thursday, February 11th. So, without further ado, antisteez takes a shot at
ONE SHOT.
(LOU): Intro – I can’t say much about this track except I am EXTREMELY upset that it is only 40 seconds long. Given it’s just “the intro” but GOD DAMNIT guys, if you make something like this for an intro, make it a bit long? 10 minutes maybe? From a bedroom producers eyes, I’m LOVING all the reverb and “trippy” feel they throw in there. I mean, given… I’m an instrumental lover.
(Goobs): Intro – This track sums up the feel of the album for me. Although it’s only 40 seconds long, it has these lovely strains from Everyday Life floating around that remind me of hearing Alukard jam live. It’s intimate. There’s nothing like hearing these guys come together and alive on stage. This sets the precedence for the album for me. It makes me feel like I am an audience of one and I’m about to hear ALukard put on a show for me…just for me.
(LOU): 44 Caliber Love Letter – The mixing from the intro to this track was superb. Definitely a track that can follow that trippy feel. Now, coming from a Hip Hop aficionado, I love this track for the simple reason that I can bob my head, with the window down in my car, wearing my gold teeth (which I actually have), my backwards 59Fifty on and STILL look hip hop.
(Goobs): 44 Caliber Love Letter – As a chick, I’m not that into heavy guitar-driven rock. I’m not trying to bang my head or lose teeth at a show. (Although I did get teeth knocked loose at a Rage Against The Machine/ Wu-Tang concert in 1997…but I digress.) But, this track is one of my favorites. First because I love the initial minute of this song. It makes me want to run, fast, unhindered, wild with no destination. And then the tempo changes and I dig it even more. All of the changes in tempo do it for me. But to be honest, the best part, the part that I love the most is the chorus of repeated, “Oh’s!”. It transports me to a live show where I am watching the crowd jump up and down and sing along. Good lyrics. We’re never giving up. Good music. The band’s relentless attitude comes across when I hear this. The track doesn’t quit and this band is not giving up. Dope.
(LOU): On Our Way – Here it is!! I’m not sure what the first single for Alukard is/was but if Lou has to chose, this is it. I actually see the video to this. If you don’t have a video idea for this song just yet, holler at your boy. I’m not too expensive. Once again the mixing into this softer track from a rough one (44 Caliber), was insane. Your producer HAS to be a genius.
(Goobs): On Our Way – I cannot say a lot about this track. I don’t like it. (I am sure I am going to catch flack for this, but I am nothing if not brutally honest, so cest la vie.) And it’s not that I don’t get it, because I get it. The band is on their way. Someone is on their way. Love is on it’s way. It’s about living in the moment. Whatever. I just…I just can’t stand it. Maybe it’s the lyrics. I am not sure what it is. I know that sappier chicks might love the line, I must confess, that I’ve wanted you all along, but not this chick. This song is THE most commercial track on the album. People will eat it up…but I’m too full from the better tracks on this album to swallow it down. Sorry, but that’s just me. It sounds like three different songs that met at a bar and ended up in a messy threeway in a sleazy hotel. If that’s your kind of scene, good for you.
(LOU): Molotov Coktease – All I have to say here is that “nice guys finish first”. Which in reality is against what I’ve always believed. Alukard changed my mind. 
(Goobs): Molotov Coktease – Thank God we bounce back to the greatest aspect of Alukard’s sound with this song…their blend of rock, hip-hop and awesome lyrics. This song is perfect for those of us who sometimes need to drive fast to blow of some steam. If you like hip-hop, you can get down with this. If you like rock, you can bang your head to this. It’s good. From E. Grizzly’s delivery to Level’s amazing belting of the lyric, Cause nice guys finish first, this song goes the way of good music. This track was a nice surprise. I had never heard it before. I am sure to play it a few dozen times this week alone.
(LOU): GS - Extremely heavy track and extremely heavy rhymes coming from Level. Definitely the track I wanna hear next time I’m in the middle of a gang war without my glock. Nah’mean?
(Goobs): GS – Have you ever been angry? Have you ever needed to hear something that personified that rage, that angst perfectly? GS is that track. Hard-hitting and yet, slower tempo’ed then some of the guitar heavy jams on this album, this song gets really epic around the 2:25 mark. It’s like hauling ass up a hill and then, at the 2:36 mark, flinging yourself off a cliff with no parachute and raging the whole way down. I have known plenty of “rap” lovers who have seen this performed live and get kind of lost in the grr of this track. As a chick, I love it. Maybe most chicks won’t, though. It’s not the most lady-friendly joint on the album. In fact, I caught a sneaker to the jaw once during this song, so be careful all you members of the fairer sex.
(LOU): Rewind – I would love to write something to this song, yet I haven’t quite understood it. It’s extremely complex. I like sitting and visualizing what the MC, the drummer, bassist, everybody is doing and looking like while they play this. So far all I can imagine is a big ball of BLOOD! I don’t know.
(Goobs): Rewind – This is music for men. (And women who like to mosh and beat dudes at a show.) It starts off pretty hard and unrelenting and then…well then it gets bananas. It starts off as the Hulk and then it turns into the Hulk all jacked up on cocaine, redbull and steroids. You ever have that daydream that your life turns into a musical and has an epic soundtrack? Well, this would be the song you play when you take out like 300 bad guys with an arsenal of weaponry and hand-to-hand combat. And then maybe you eat them. Raw. While they’re still alive. Yeah…that’s about it for this song. lol
(LOU): Conversion – I’m sorry Alukard but, this is the song I skip over. You guys do an amazing job at it. But one of my ex girlfriends used to play Tainted Love all the time in her car… and my car.. and her house.. and sing it.. and it made me throw up. So listening to this song makes me want to kill babies, and possibly feed them to other babies.. right before I kill those, also. The guitar solo ending the track is pretty awesome though. I can not lie.
(Goobs): Conversion – Why is this song amazing? I am going to say that it’s the Tainted Love hook is the obvious answer to that question. It’s fast-paced and energetic and it’s a good song for runners. (I don’t really run, unless someone or something is chasing me….lol…but if I needed music to fuel a long-distance run or high-endurance workout, this would make my playlist for sure.)
(LOU): Drifter - I’m a sucker for ballad’s and soft/cute rock songs. Therefore, in order to keep my reputation, or lack there of, in tact, I’m just gonna go ahead and let the woman of the review finish this for me. ::cough cough this song is amazing cough cough::
(Goobs): Drifter – So we have come to what I like to think of as the tears of this album. Well, I say that because I have heard this song a hundred times, but when I heard it on this album while I drove home one night from a long day at work…it made me cry. It is a song about someone being alone, even when he is surrounded by people. About that one face you show to the others around you and that one part of you that they will never see. Ever feel that way? Ever feel disconnected? Like there is nothing you can call your own? This is that song. A song so beautiful and melodic that you will listen to it and you will connect to Level and his words. Nobody knows who I am, nobody knows where I go. Because I’m just a drifter just trying to make my way home. Beautiful. Poignant. I’ve been that Drifter. I’m sure you have been, too.
(LOU): The 5th – Call Obama, let him know that LOU is taking over. I love this song. It’s so “rock-ish” and totally not what I’m used to listening to, yet I feel at home when I listen to this. Very well produced, all the instruments REALLY represent on this. Guitar solos, screaming, heavy MC-ing. It’s a serious track to drive 300 miles over the speeding limit too.
(Goobs): The 5th – I am going to go ahead and say it. THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE ALUKARD SONG. I have had many, but this one really steals my heart at the moment. The chorus of, I know! That I gotta give it one shot! is so epic that it lifts me. Then E. Grizzly comes along and represents for my city. For my home. For my 305. This is Miami. The sound of the city. This is my family, they’re down and they’re with me. And then you have Level’s vocals on this percussion-heavy jam (Thanks to Zaigone, drummer extraordinaire.) screaming out Nothing. Nothing could feel this way! This song is motivational. Makes me feel like I have to get out there and complete something that I’ve always wanted to do. Like if I don’t give it one shot, it will be gone forever. Definitely one of the BEST tracks on the album.
(LOU): 8 Ball Side Pocket – After you listen to this song, possibly during, you will be able to take the whole brick. That simple solo 45 seconds before the song ends, followed by the heavy percussion makes me feel like these guys are literally filled with powder while performing this. Really good song and really makes you feel they know what they’re talking about. LOL
(Goobs): 8 Ball Side Pocket – Coming into this track you get a sample from the great film, Walk Hard. Yeah, a sample about cocaine use. The chorus about One more time. One more line. The title. Yeah…I think you all know what this song is about. And if you don’t, then stop and listen and learn.
(LOU): Give Into Miss Take – All I’m going to say here is, PUN INTENDED ON ‘MISS TAKE’. Poetry at it’s finest, as always. A song about a bad chick. Well, maybe not a bad chick, but definitely not the right chick. You have to appreciate a song that takes a girl down a notch.
(Goobs): Give Into Miss Take - I am going to say this right off the bat…this is NOT a love song. In fact, this is a song about falling for that wrong person. This is a song about those moments after you realize that you loved someone who turned out to be the fucking worst human being on the planet. That anger and that regret of being blinded by someone and not seeing the undercurrent of, “Totally Wrong For You,” that’s laying there right under the surface. Come on. We’ve all fallen for someone who was, Spawned from Hell, so revel that someone is singing about it.
(LOU): Forever Never – It’s only right that I let Goobs spill her guts on this track. Since I’ve met her, this song is all she can talk about. It is a chick song all the way, but, it works out if you take a chick to see this band live and they play this song. It’s probably epic enough to get you laid. Just sayin’…Alukard sure did kill it on this one.
(Goobs): Forever Never - This is THE TRACK for the LADIES. This is THE ULTIMATE LOVE SONG about that secret, forbidden love. It is the bands biggest ballad and I have never met a woman who didn’t LOVE this song when she heard it. (Guys always love the first guitar chords compliments of Steven, guitar man wonder.) The chorus of Where did you go last night? resounds with those of use who have gone crazy wondering where the object of our affection is and who they are with, too. It’s about jealousy. It’s about angst. Your eyes are whispering at me, though we both hardly speak. I’m a sight for the blind, you’re a song for the deaf. Sigh. This is a chick song and goddamn it, there is nothing wrong with that. I think this should be the band’s first single.
(LOU): Just Maybe – This is a great track about the reality of the music business. One minute you are hot, one minute you are not. It’s a reality that a lot of artists face in this fickle musical world. While some people bury their heads in the sand, Alukard writes songs about it. Even if you like their hard-hitting stuff, this track will stick in your head. It’s a nice change of pace on the album and you gotta give it up to the instrumentation.
(Goobs): Just Maybe – And I think this should be the band’s second single. It’s so perfect, this track. You get the great strings in this melodic masterpiece. And you get a hell of a story. You see, I am going to tell you something intimate about this track. This track is a look into this band’s soul. You see the gritty climb to fame that they have survived. And who would have thought that we would get this far? And then you see that fear of just maybe, possibly failing. And who would have thought this ship would fall apart? Alukard knows that they have a great shot at making it big, but they know the fleeting, fickle nature of fame and they are not going to claw their way to the top without understanding that there could be a sudden tumble to the bottom again. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to enjoy every second of the ride. Even if it means that at the end, it’s just them and their music. And I will sing to myself a song about my dreams. Amen.
(LOU): Everyday Life – This is a great song because the first time I saw it live, the crowd was going crazy. Everyone was chanting the chorus and it jut felt good. And the band has really captured the live feel of this track on this cut. It’s a feel good song and it is hype. Not in the way that some of the heavier-hitting songs on the album are, but in more of a sing along at the bar kind of way.
(Goobs): Everyday Life – This song. Oh, this song. This song is a crowd favorite. You go to any Alukard show and this song is always the culmination of the night. It speaks to people. It talks about the world we live in and the shit that we all wade through. But you know what? It’s alright. It’s okay. I smoke all night. I drink all day. This is my everyday life. This song is the message, so make sure you are listening.
(LOU): Outro - An interesting way to end the album. It closes out the same way that it came in…in this jam-band kind of way. Nice surprise was the hidden track that featured a piece of Goobs’ interview with the band. It was unexpected and pretty dope. I am sure she will be stoked that she’s on the album.
(Goobs): Outro - A great way to end this album…the Outro is like, well, it’s like cuddling after sex. lol Or even better…it’s like the last few seconds of a rad rollercoaster ride where the cart slows down and the screaming dies away and you think to yourself…I want to do that again! Plus…I am a little biased because there might be six minutes of silence in this track but at minute mark 7:00, you will hear part of my interview with the band a few months ago in the Labeless Studios. Yes. I made the album. That is pretty stellar. In fact, I think it’s amazing. But hey, that’s just me.
If you would like to get your hands on the album, come out to (((SHAKE))) at the Vagabond on Thursday, February 11th and pick one up. While you are there, make sure to get your face melted off with a live performance by the band. If you are in the 305 and you haven’t had a taste of 305 rock, you are long overdue.
Combat.
