For a band whose conception started out with such promise, its sound has caused it to fall flat on its face.
The musical group Tool gained wide popularity for their morbid sound and brutal, uncompromising lyrics. So there was widespread interest when bass player Paul D'Amour formed his own band, The Replicants.
The Replicants, Ken Andrews (bass, lead vocals), D'Amour (guitar), Greg Edwards (drums, percussion), and Chris Pitman (keyboards, backing vocals) play no new music.
Besides D'Amour, the other members hail from other bands such as Failure and Triangle.
Sadly, the Replicants' self-titled first (and perhaps last) album falls well short of the quality and drive found in D'Amour's first band.
While technically talented, no one in the band stands out for their musical creativity. From conception to completion of the first album, The Replicants are uninspired and lacking in vision.
Conceptually, their debut album, out on Zoo Records, is interesting.
The album consists of music written by artists from the 70's and 80's. Songs written by Neil Young, Pink Floyd and Steely Dan are covered on the album, to name just a few.
One might expect the group to cover the lesser-known tunes from these composers. But instead the group concentrates on covering the artists' most overplayed songs.
The need or interest in these tunes died down long ago, and anyone interested in any of the music on The Replicants album would be better off listening to a classic rock radio station.
Other critics like Dave Robbins of the Rational Alternative Digital agree. Robbins said, "If you think Tool are bad, the Replicants will make you projectile vomit. The album's heavy sound pushes it way out of the realm of anything you could call 'alternative.' "
"This is stuff for fans of Queensreich and Cinderella."
Perhaps the theory behind the album is that tunes by these venerable artists have some timeless quality to them, and need only be annotated or re-arraigned to sound interesting to new audiences.
However, D'Amour and company fail to deliver. The first song on the album "Just What I Needed," by Ric Ocasek of the Cars, sets the pace.
The Replicants play this Cars favorite at half the tempo of the original arrangement, dragging it out inexorably.
To make the tune sound up-to-date, the four musicians do what any sensible arranger would do: use lots of distortion of course!
By the fourth song, the "magic formula" discovered by The Replicants is unbearably tiresome. Three songs on the album actually drag out to more than six minutes in playing time.
Thus, the songs on the album actually sound as if they come from an era before they were written.
Since the punk revolution in the late 70's, brevity and eloquence have been cornerstones of good hardcore punk.
The Replicants album is excruciatingly painful to listen too, although the attractive green cover might make a nice coaster or dinner tray.
D'Amour should listen to his Sex Pistols and Minor Threat albums once or twice more before attempting another cover album.
This article is part of an on-going series of profiles on up-and-coming bands.
