Blogged my review here:
http://belredroad.blogspot.com/2009/10/sekshun-8-is-reason-for-eleven.html
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Funny thing about getting older: When I was 15, I expected that in 30 years I would be driving a Cadillac and listening to smooth jazz. Instead, I'm driving a pickup and listening to metal. Some things never change, despite the march of time.
Sekshun 8 released Black Winged Butterfly in 2009, but its sound is authentic early Nineties. In short, it rocks. Rocks like there's no tomorrow. Rocks at a volume that simply asks for more volume. It is the reason for the 11 on your volume control. Don't have an 11? Then twist it to 10 and attach the headphones to your ears with duct tape. You will hear licks and beats which pay honor to Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, early Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Alice In Chains. My suspicion is that - at 15 - these guys were much like me.
In fact, "Watch the Burn" is written with the voice of someone at that age - the ultimate rebel, akin to Alice Cooper's "Eighteen" or "School's Out." It's about the kid down your street, the one with the dead flatbed Ford in the yard and the old dryer on the front porch. You know him; he took a wiffle ball bat to your rose bushes in the front yard last summer, and knocked over your garbage cans after you complained to his parents.
Together the songs "Three Blocks" and "Hooked" create a study in two ends of a lifestyle. The first song describes the pleasures some feel with over-indulgence through partying and drugs, while the second one describes in detail the sad results from doing so. While I will neither embrace nor endorse the lifestyle portrayed here, I will embrace the music as catchy, heavy, and thought provoking. Both songs go into overtime in painting a picture through words. I can feel the excitement of the first song, anticipating the all-night party that is only three blocks away. I can also feel the sickness and helplessness of Hooked as someone figures out they have taken too much of something and just want it to go away. Not a good place to be. If someone can listen to Hooked and then think that the druggie life is cool, then they need a lot more help than this album can provide. Understand this: I know from personal experience that this lifestyle tends to destroy a lot of lives - more than it helps. The subject matter is nothing to make light of. It's heavy stuff, because the end can be lonely and cold for anyone who crosses the wrong line. Maybe it was the band's goal to send the message that "life can be fun, but without self-control it will go straight down the toilet."
"Zombie Baby" keeps the visuals coming, creepy visuals that are like a window into the soul of someone who cannot love anything with bodily warmth. Alice In Chains - if they haven't heard it already - would be proud.
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