All Mixed Up With No Where To Go

Powerful death metal is not exactly what comes to mind when listening to Housebreaking’s sophomore album, Against All Odds. While the band has mixed roots musically as well as nationality-wise, the primary style you hear throughout is standard metal, though the punk attributes are hard to ignore. This makes the band primarily pop metal, which is especially disappointing if the listener is expecting some truly heavy death metal.

It also clashes at times with the style of low ramble grunt vocals given by Jean Marc. Where he could do a little more, possibly make full use of his vocal range, he settles for a growl. For example, the track “Little Boy” finds Jean Marc telling us a story in the always-beautiful Italian tongue, but there’s little-to-no inflection or emphasis and barely any musical accompaniment, making this track superfluous.  There are still some tracks, such as “Misanthropique” and “Blood Red,” which are definitely playing with heavier metal tones, but alas still not death metal. The speed and flair in track “Stay Away” make it difficult to call it anything other than punk, even despite its breakdown into some odd mosh-pit repetitive beat.

All in all, this makes it very hard for one to gauge how to judge Against All Odds. Taking into account their origins as a punk and metal cover band, the album is not half-bad. It’s not half-good either. While this is a solid attempt at a follow-up, getting a more distinct sound should be the next thing on the band’s to-do list. For the guitarists, bass player and drummer, this should not be a problem as they are all rather skilled and enjoyable to listen to. For Marc, it could be quite a task; he could do with a little more personally exploratory vocalization. Hopefully, within the next five years that it may take them to put out their third album, he’ll have the time to learn how to impress us.