ROCKSTOP...your source for pop and modern rock CD reviews: SMILE EMPTY SOUL: Vultures

Dave's Take: Smile Empty Soul which hails from Santa Clarita, California released their second official album Vultures, a few months ago. You can consider it their third album if you count Anxiety, an amazing effort which I think is their best album that featured one of their best songs "Holes", but was never officially released to the public due to issues with their label Lava. You can find it online, either for download or on EBAY, however, if you look hard enough. Though this album has some tracks I don't think it stacks up with their previous two efforts. In typical Smile Empty soul fashion their is a lot of anger, angst, and hopelessness present in the music and lyrics. The difference is that with Smile Empty Soul you are left with the feeling that they really believe what they are singing about and not just writing about it to sell a record. While most of the standout tracks are slower in tempo, "The Hit" is more of an up-tempo number which takes lyrical jabs at the music industry and landlords:

"Hey record company
do you need a hit
cause I need a hit too
to keep me from hitting you
just being in the same room with you
makes me want to get high"

It sounds a bit poppy by their standards but it is definitely one of the songs on the album that gets stuck in your head easily and having it as the lead single makes a lot of sense. "Loser" is a typical self-deprecating angst ridden Smile Empty Soul type song that many people can identify with at one time or another.

"Give me something good and I'll fuck it up
All my life I've tried but never had much luck
To be happy but I guess it's just not meant to be
I'm gonna die a loser"

"The Freaks are Coming" is possibly the best track on the album with its haunting verse structure and soft guitar picking that explodes into the crunchy chorus. In this song SES attacks parents sheltering their children too much:

"Never questioned anything about the way that you were raised
Keep your life so plain, everything the same
Every Sunday take your kids to church just like your folks did
Don't let them complain and never go insane
You're scared of the changing world round you
But you know what to do
[chorus]
So lock your doors and shut the blinds
Cause you know that the freaks are coming"

A few tracks later we get the dark but melodic "Here's to Another" that vies for the best track on the album. This song is one of their strongest lyrically as it deals with alcohol addiction. My two other favorite tracks are "Disease" and "Vultures" which musically are quite different but both deal with being fed up with world in different ways. "Disease" starts of with a very interesting rapid guitar strumming that runs into the beautiful angst ridden vocals in the chorus:

"As I hold you
I'm drowning too
I'll hide my tears
To help you through
But inside I'm screaming for some healing
Never felt so empty
And I'm telling you
It's slowly killing me
Bleeding for some meaning
I need to know there's something more to living than this horrible disease"

The CD closes with the title track "Vultures" an acoustic song which happens to be my favorite on the album. The guitar strumming is simple but lovely and goes perfectly with simple but powerful lyrics. You can hear the pain in Sean Danielsen's singing on this track as he cries

"That's why I hate the smiles and I hate the flies
That buzz around the bullshit
I can't wait to die so all the mouths
Of the vultures can be fed"

While this CD contains some of the more powerful Smile Empty Soul songs to date I still think it's their weakest effort to date. It's too bad their real second album got shelved as it puts this one too shame. Nonetheless this is another solid effort from Smile Empty Soul and is worth picking up are at least buying the better tracks.

OVERALL RATING: 7/10 (Too many mediocre tracks to give it a high rating)

SOUNDS LIKE: Saliva, Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Alice in Chains

BAND BIO: Smile Empty Soul returns stronger & smarter than ever and ready to take their rightful place as alt rocks kingpins. Equal parts hardcore, punk, metal and melodic rock, this Southern California band doesn't shy away from any topic or pull any punches. Boldly going forth lyrically where even Captain Kirk himself would fear to tread, Sean Danielsen's lyrics deal with every hot-button issue you can think of - politics, drugs, the corporate poisoning of the music industry and so much more.

The band's new CD. VULTURES, shows Smile Empty Soul at their brightest and best. Young men in control of their own destiny, making the record that "represents (them) 100%. We did this one OUR WAY," says Danielsen.

After reaching the heights of the music biz with their #1 smash single, "Bottom Of A Bottle," in 2004 the band went on to play over 250 shows packing venues from coast to coast with everyone from Janes Addiction to Puddle Of Mudd to The Deftones. Gold record firmly in one hand and the might of their true conviction in the other, the band's unreleased music prior to VULTURES went about ruffling some fairly important feathers at some of our country's most influential religious and corporate organizations. The lyrical content of what was to be their first single (called "Holes") caused a 30,000 piece avalanche of protest-mail that scared their label and ultimately gave Smile Empty Soul their freedom back. It was a glorious emancipation, with fire and artistic credibility fully intact.

Smile Empty Soul is now Danielsen and bassist Ryan Martin along with two new members - guitarist Mike Booth formerly of the band COLD and drummer Jake Kilmer of the band THE FLIPPER BABIES. The band is stronger than ever, and ready to reclaim the chances that should have been afforded them after their first release.Their subsequent partnership with one of the fastest growing independent labels in the industry, Bieler Bros. Records - home to Skindred, Nonpoint and others - allowed the band to create freely, with the knowledge that their record company was behind them 100%. The resulting album, VULTURES, hit stores on October 24th. The album's first single, "The Hit" manages to be both a vitriolic stomp over the corpse of their former record company experiences, as well as an anthem for rebellion against the norm, bosses, nagging partners, and screaming landlords of our day-to-day existence. It gives a voice to everyone's frustrations.

On 10/18 the band embarked upon an extended bout of roadwork behind VULTURES. Don't expect the shows to be carbon copies of the album; more than ever SMILE EMPTY SOUL is bringing their ultra- frenetic approach to their live performances.

BEST SONGS: THE HIT, LOSER, THE FREAKS ARE COMING, HERE'S TO ANOTHER, DISEASE, VULTURES

VIDEOS/SONG SAMPLES: