Trying desperately to be original

HORSE the Band’s “Desperate Living” would be nearly indistinguishable from the sea of metal releases this year if it weren’t for the band’s obsession with "Nintendo."
 
All 12 tracks on “Desperate Living” are awash with keyboards that sound straight out of Super Mario World. The synthesizers have a certain novelty, but when it wears off “Desperate Living” doesn’t have much else to offer.

More than the obnoxious keyboards, the biggest problem with “Desperate Living” is its production. Even on a nice pair of headphones, the album sounds thin and weak. The guitars have no bite and are often just background noise.

“The Failure of All Things” exemplifies everything wrong with this album: Every decent riff that appears is immediately run over by an unnecessary Nintendo moment. If the keyboards weren’t so annoying and the production was better this album might have been one of the better metal releases of the year, but as it stands “Desperate Living” is a muddy, obnoxious mess.