This review was done by a local Evansville Indiana "critic". I think He is 19 years old. Here, you will read his opinion of our album, then he will review the new WEEN album. Then there is a response not just to his review, but to what we have to deal with in a small town.

BEN GLENN's review.


One of the innumerable byproducts of a bastardized genre, Deliver Us from Evil joined the ranks of hundreds of bands with their release of Behold a Pale Horse via Evansville’s Strych 9 Productions. Like countless others, they have sought to bridge the gap between hardcore/thrash and traditional metal.
From the beginning of the album with “Only Ashes Remain,” John Matheis’s surprisingly technical guitar work tends to distract from the other elements of the ensemble. His often overpowering blend of stalking grind riffs and more traditional solo work may be a blessing in disguise given the conventionality of most of the band’s material. Although Brent Vaughn’s vocal performance delivers some hard-hitting political views, the lyrics are underdeveloped and widely the same stuff metal and hardcore fans have all heard before. For instance, the album’s dramatic climax, “Until Tomorrow,” is a stark contrast to the exhausting “Casualty” which opens with a tiring intro from drummer Alex Morgan. Morgan, in his defense, is a talented musician whose skill is downplayed by his devotion to genre standards.
Conversely, bassist Jeff Thomas finds much of his performance buried beneath side winding grind guitars and the brutal onslaught of a double kicker. Among his brief moments of audibility is a marked appearance on “Profit” which is arguably one of the better songs on the album.
Although the band has unfortunately locked themselves within the confines of an overcrowded genre, their raw skill alone puts many of their peers to shame. Overall, the apocalyptic metal four piece—however unoriginal—is a talented band and a good recommendation for fans of earlier Avenged Sevenfold instrumentation, Winds of Plague, and possibly even some Devildriver listeners. If nothing else, they deserve your respect for sticking to their guns in a region saturated with cover bands.
-Ben Glenn, Rating: 2.5


Ween
At the Cat’s Cradle, 1992
(Rounder Records)
www.ween.com



Ah, Ween. What more can be said? To the unseasoned listener, “Dear Lord…What the heck is this?” would come to mind.
However unconventional their style may be, Ween is one of the most entertaining experimental bands of the decade. MVD Audio’s recent release of the live CD/DVD At the Cat’s Cradle, 1992 brings us Ween in their strangest form.
The DVD’s utter lack of video quality does nothing to overshadow the skills that these guys have as entertainers. Despite the unpredictability of a good Ween set, it is obvious that Dean and Gene are technically proficient and know exactly what they’re doing…even if they don’t. Dean may be the only guitarist who can not only hang a guitar upside down from a semi-intact E string and make it sound good, but also pull off some skilled psychedelic, blues, and funk stringwork. Check out footage of “ReggaeJunkieJew” and see for yourself.
Their stage presence is just as beautifully ugly as one would expect from a band that makes Reggie and the Full Effect sound like Michael Bublé. Picture Hunter S. Thompson on mescaline playing a guitar and howling into a mic. This is Ween at their best and most disturbing.
In stark contrast to the relatively poor quality of the DVD is the masterfully recorded (and delightfully bizarre) CD. Captured in detail are 21 of the band’s best songs including the Flight of the Concordes-esque “Captain Fantasy” and the infectious funk/hip-hop groove “The Goin’ Gets Tough from the Getgo (Go Man Go).”
Although Ween’s brand of music is an acquired taste, At the Cat’s Cradle, 1992 is one of the most entertaining releases of 2008.
-Ben Glenn, Rating: 4.5

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HERE IS ALEX's RESPONSE ..............
I like to write. So I'm glad my career puts me in a position to express myself this way. This "blog stuff" is also useful in promoting my bands and photography. So, with this in mind, this is just an opinion. It may entertain you....or it may piss you off. But I don't really care, just like the critic didn't care when he wrote the review at the beginning of this blog. So with that said, I have no personal problem with the reviewer. I'm just glad he gave me something to write about. With that said, enjoy.

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Critics are usually enjoyed as much as meter maids and the IRS. This blog is in response to a very vague review of one of my bands DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
Now the question is, should I respond to this? Or let it roll off my back. I haven't exactly been known to keep my mouth shut during my career thus far, but I try to make sure my responses are intelligent, and not in anger. So basically, this is just a blog.....or my opinion, and really should not be taken seriously.

For thousands of years, artists have been making art. Some for money, others for pleasure, and some just fell into it as a career. Being an artist myself my whole life, I have gotten to the point where I understand how important the role of critique is in my field. And have come to the point in my life where I know that not everyone will like what I create, weather it be a song I helped write, a photo I've taken, something I have written, a drawing I've made...... but all of these things contribute to advertising and promoting what I do, and give people an idea of what I can do for them. Critique is important because it gives you outside opinions of how others could react to the work. The more work an artist does, the more of a structured opinion one can make to decide whether to hire that particular artist........or just enjoy their art.

Being an artist, I have experienced different reactions from people, some good, some bad, but the fact that people react at all is flattering. Keep in mind that 90% of "artists" out there are so afraid of what people might think of their work that they don't EVER show anyone and keep it to themselves. Which is fine. I've found that an artistic outlet is very important to me personally, and can understand why others would want to partake in making art for the sake of making art. It's a way to express yourself in a creative fashion.

I've noticed now that by putting myself and my bands in the public eye, the reactions are interesting. Sometimes when an artist achieves a certain level of success, whatever that might be, it triggers a very jealous and envious reaction from other artists. At first they may offer a congratulations, and instantly patronize you into finding out what they may be able to GAIN from you now that you have achieved YOUR goal. But once they realize they can't really get what you have worked so hard for, the true colors show and the rumors start flaring up. I find this interesting mainly because I tend to be so busy in what I am doing, I have little time to think about other peoples achievements. Unless those people are close friends or family. Although I am happy for anyone when they meet their goals, it's usually apparent that the person that became successful worked extremely hard to achieve their success....... and it really doesn't matter what I think of them anyway.

But sometimes, someone's opinion sticks out to the point where I feel I should respond as well. Now, understand that when people react negatively to something I had a part of, it does not anger me. I expect that reaction, mainly because I probably did not do that particular piece for anyone than myself. Now if I was commissioned by someone to make art for money, of course I am going to follow the criteria that needs to be met to satisfy the client (I'm referring to my photography, if anyone knew that I was involved with that.) As far as writing music, my band and I are writing songs that satisfy ourselves. And if people happen to like it, that's a positive bonus.

But, here's the reality of the music business. If you don't put your material out there, then you will never be successful financialy as an artist. Without generating finances, it's hard to continue persuing playing music. Which means that you have to collect as much press as possible. Important resources in advertising for an "original song writing band" can be reviews, critique, radio play, album sales, myspace numbers, and shows. Which brings me to why I am writing this blog in the first place.

Every once in a while, as an artist, you run into a critic that does not like your art. Whether it's a personal preference, personal issues between the artist and critic, or a possible lack of knowledge by the critic of what the artist does, these examples can all be possible contributing factors to a bad review.

When an artist is being critiqued by someone, that artist usually hopes that the person judging your work is an expert in the field they are reviewing. Mainly because I'm sure a 4 star resturant getting reviewed by a gas station attendent wouldn't make much sense. And that is an example of what I see happening in this review.......excluding the possibility that the critic works at a gas station. Which there is nothing wrong with being a gas station attendant either, I just hope you aren't in the position to "professionaly" review my art....... unless you happen to be a relatively experienced artist yourself..... in a similar field of course.

With this, I am going to define the word critic so everyone understands what is going on here.

A critic is a person who judges the merits of literary, artistic, or musical works, esp. one who does so professionally. "Professionally" is not just a word that means that the person was "paid". It means that the person has developed a positive reputation for having or showing the skill appropriate to a professional person; competent or skillful.

So, after reading this review, maybe you will ask the same question that I asked.

"who is this person?"

The funny thing is, I don't know! It's interesting, because when I called News 4 U (evansville indiana's entertainment guide) to inquire about the review, I was instantly asked if I would get mad if we got a bad review. I relplied no, but laughed to myself mainly because I was wondering why they would even care if I was mad. Maybe if I told them I would be mad, maybe that would have swayed their opinion? Maybe, maybe not. But was still interested in who they would assign the job of reviewing our record. And we found that after the mag came out, we got reviewed by a WEEN fan. Which is fine. I've enjoyed songs by them such as "bannanas and blow" and "tastes good on a bun" for some time now. So I'm not exactly jealous that WEEN received a better review than my band.

But the way the review opens is interesting to me. The first line is "One of the innumerable byproducts of a bastardized genre, DELIVER US FROM EVIL joined the ranks of hundreds of bands with their release of BEHOLD A PALE HORSE." Now, with that opening statement, the reviewer may have a chip on his shoulder when it comes to this particular bastardized genre. And he only mentions hundreds of bands. I'm sure there are more bands out there than just what the word "hundreds" can describe. I'd probably say the amount of professional and wannabe metal bands in the world at least would be in the "thousands".

Key notes of the review are "John Matheis's surprisingly techincal guitar work tends to distract from the other elements of the ensemble". "Brent Vaughs lyrics are hard hitting politically yet underdeveloped and unoriginal, Morgan, in his defense is a talented musician whose skill is downplayed by his devotion to genre standards ". And says Casualty's intro is tiring (don't understand that either), and "Jeff Thomas finds most of his performance inaudible beneath sidewinding guitars, and the brutal onslaught of the double kicker". He mentions that Profit is the best song, but he also mentions multiple times that we are unoriginal. And mentions DELIVER US FROM EVIL and AVENGED SEVENFOLD (which now has a hit I thought was a Guns N Roses song) in the same sentence.

So to sum it up, he says "John Matheis is good, but overplays. Brent is good, but he's unoriginal. Morgan is good, but metal sucks. I can't hear Jeff because there is so much other crap going on. Profit is the best song on an unoriginal album."

That's what I got out of it anyway....llol (literally laughing out loud).

There really is no positive statements about the record at all. Which leads me to believe that this person is either possibly a failed musician, totally can't stand metal, has personal issues with the band (which is possible considering Evansville is small, and certain people think it is their devine role to put others in their "proverbial" places.........although he does have a seemingly broad vocabulary), or we just failed to make a record that is worth anything to anyone.

BUT in our defense, don't forget that we have played 120 shows within an 800 mile radius in the last two years, are the one of the top two selling local artists in Evansville, have over 150,000 hits on our myspace page, and have been headlining the local music radio show on 103 GBF since our record dropped (which we appreciate btw).........and I doubt we would achieve some of these things if we didn't have something good going on, and we'll also see where we are in the grand scheme of things once we have been around as long as WEEN.........not that I want to rub that in anyones face. But there were positive aspects of our band that our local reviewer failed to mention, obviously due to the lack of knowledge.

But that may have been overlooked by the bastardized role of being an amateur critic.

And always remember, originality, just like beauty will always be in the eye of the beholder.

Love to know what you all think! About the review, the band, or this blog...... please feel free to let me have it!!! But please, I would like to keep this subject public.....so if you send your opinions, make sure you know everyone will be able to read it.....

Alex