This review covers the industrial metal track Jerk – Sucked In.
This track was released in 2003 on the album When Pure Is Defiled. It also made an appearance in the game Need for Speed: Underground as well as even the Game Boy Advance version if you can believe that.
The track starts off with a non-lyrical vocal. After that, the drum kit and a synth joins the track. From there, the vocals join the track pretty quickly. After a quick drum kit drill, several other synths and a guitar element makes a temporary appearance. From there, the vocals rejoin the track. Another synth joins the track.
After another drill on the drum kit, the vocals take the track into the main chorus. This is joined by the guitar element from earlier. At the end, everything in the track drops out except a synth.
From there, the vocals and every other elements rejoin the track. The guitar then drops out as the vocals continue the next verse. After that, the vocals take the track into the main chorus again. The guitar rejoins the track. Those vocals extend the main chorus. After that, the vocals lead the track out.
One thing I really like about this track is the use of the synths for a particular reason. For most of the track, you can find yourself listening to these synths and think that they most are lead guitars. In fact, they are just nicely filtered well tuned synths to give the track that rock sound. To make the synths even more interesting is the fact that guitar work is actually very light here. There is some, but its the synths that really carry this track throughout.
If you are listening to a lot of tracks like trance, you can very easily get complacent over what a synth is capable of doing. In the case of trance, you might think that synths simply have a simple lead sound or a synth string effect or even some pad work. If you are more interested in synth-pop, it’s possible to think that the range for synths is to give a sort of key-tar retro synth sound. Unless you listen to an artist like Toby Emerson or possibly Pendulum, it’s easy to forget how aggressive synths can actually sound. So, a take away here is that a synths range is actually very very wide. This track certainly shows that in spades.
Perhaps compounding the initial thinking that this is almost all rock is the vocals. They have a very heavy metal sound to them. Sometimes, this ends up making the track sounding like garbage while other times, it makes the track sound actually really good. In this case, I lean towards making the track sound good. When you have aggressive synths and electric guitars backing you, the style of vocals actually makes a lot of sense. Of course, what can spoil the sound is the idea that the vocals will be hard to understand. In this case, they are surprisingly articulate, so this doesn’t become a problem.
Another thing I like about the track is how this track progresses. In some of the quieter parts, there is actually some simple synths thrown in to really punctuate these parts. In short, no part is really just some cheap transition. Thought is clearly put into this one on every second. This is definitely what I like to hear here.
Overall, this is a great track. It has great synths and a nice light touching of electric guitars even though it really doesn’t sound like that at all. The vocals work to a surprisingly good degree and the overall production value is top notch. So, a great track all around.
Score
8/10
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
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