Calm Insanity, Calm Insanity

Calm Insanity were founded towards the end of the year 2000. Since then, they band have frequently toured the UK supporting bands such as Lostprophets, Vacant Stare, Brutal Deluxe, Kilkus, Skindred and Number One Son to name but a few. Their debut, self-titled album was released on 1st November 2002 through Casket Music.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Intro

2. The Hate Inside

3. Through A Child's Eyes

4. Why?

5. My Disease

6. Never Gave

7. Bring Me 2 Pain

8. Slipping Away

9. The Grief That I Know

10. The Silence

The album starts of with a rather annoying 2min 4sec intro that involves some trance-like weird sounds and deep, deep bass. From then on the band churn out a proficient grindcore/hardcore album packed with deep growls from vocalist Gary Stanley. The guitars have a thick chunky sound to them, giving the tracks a heavy 'Pantera' edge. The constant samples and record scratching that seems to litter the CD is extremely annoying, and seems to tarnish some otherwise reasonable tracks.

The CD artwork is extremely poor, with little to no effort put into the cover design and any of the rest of the packaging. This is a shame as the band have obviously put a lot of hard work into releasing this album. The recording and production is of a high standard, with a clear, crisp sound that manages to capture the aggression and power in the band's music. I'm not sure if the band are trying to be a heavy 'Incubus' or that is what just came naturally to them, but this is what comes through in a lot of their tracks, particularly in 'The Grief That I Know'.

All in all, I would say that the band are nothing original, but have managed to produce a CD that reflects their music and style well. If you like this kind of thing, then it would be worth giving them a try. Unfortunetly I find all this Nu Metal lark a bit tedious.