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Urban Tales - Diary Of A No review



Reviewer:
8.0

7 users:
8
Band: Urban Tales
Album: Diary Of A No
Release date: 2007


01. Prison Inside
02. In Purity
03. The Rise
04. Youll Never Know
05. Fade Away
06. Stronger
07. Fall
08. Crawl
09. Until I Died
10. Farewell
11. Urban Tales / The End [bonus]

"Diary Of A No" is the debut of the Portuguese band Urban Tales. The first song "Prison Inside" already pretty much shows us what we're at with this album. After an intro which basically consists of a phone ring, the track turns out to be a melodic rock song with traces of alternative metal and a minimalist keyboard.

This is roughly what most of the album sounds like. It's somewhere in between rock and metal with a few minor alternative elements and a lot of melodic and very emotional passages. There are also some heavier moments though. For example the second track "In Purity" of which the beginning is reminiscent of Paradise Lost.

Exactly that is one of the strongest things of this album. While most of it is melodic music with a few alternative influences, Urban Tales built a lot of "extras" into this CD to make sure that every song is something special. On some songs we've got a female vocalist in the background supporting the main male singer, in others the vocalist screams in some passages, in one track we've even got a short hiphoppish passage. "You'll never know" (one of the best songs here in my opinion) starts with a short aggressive-sounding intro and then turns into a very melodic, a bit popish perhaps, song. Others are more aggressive, some have minimalist keyboard lines in the background, others don't, a few even have tribal elements in them.

I have the feeling that the band decided on a certain direction but also that no single song is allowed to sound the same, and added a lot of other elements to their songs. I really wish more bands would do it this way, because it really makes me want to listen the whole CD through once I've started.

In the end this is a pretty good CD, however I believe many will be turned off by it because it's too "soft" or too "easy." Perhaps others will be turned off by the small alternative elements (a la Ill Niño). If you don't mind that, though, you could like this band extremely well, because this is a really, really strong emotional and melodic album with enough variety to never get boring.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 7
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 7
Production: 7

Written by Bas | 25.12.2007




Comments

Comments: 5   Visited by: 31 users
25.12.2007 - 16:57
Bararey
Winter is Coming
So it is a melodic album that is a bit Rock and alternative metal with "hiphoppish" and "popish: momnets?
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"Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died."
Ser Jorah Mormont
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25.12.2007 - 19:14
BloodTears
ANA-thema
I've heard of urban tales. I'm still not curious about them. Your review just made the feeling i had about them stronger.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29

Like you could kiss my ass.


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26.12.2007 - 16:07
Rating: 7
Bas
Retired Staff
Written by Bararey on 25.12.2007 at 16:57

So it is a melodic album that is a bit Rock and alternative metal with "hiphoppish" and "popish: momnets?

it's a bit hard to pinpoint, i think it's safe to say that there's a bit gothic metal in it as well, but only a little bit, and there's actually only one single passage on the whole album that's kinda hiphoppish, dont worry about that, and it's not really poppish either, rather 'easy to listen to' and its not "really" alternative metal either, like i said it has some alternative elements in it, it's not actually alternative
Written by BloodTears on 25.12.2007 at 19:14

I've heard of urban tales. I'm still not curious about them. Your review just made the feeling i had about them stronger.

well what they do they do pretty good, but if it's not your kind of thing you probably wont like it, a shame though
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BAS - Beautifully Accented Sexiness
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26.12.2007 - 16:20
BloodTears
ANA-thema
Written by Bas on 26.12.2007 at 16:07

Written by Bararey on 25.12.2007 at 16:57

So it is a melodic album that is a bit Rock and alternative metal with "hiphoppish" and "popish: momnets?

it's a bit hard to pinpoint, i think it's safe to say that there's a bit gothic metal in it as well, but only a little bit, and there's actually only one single passage on the whole album that's kinda hiphoppish, dont worry about that, and it's not really poppish either, rather 'easy to listen to' and its not "really" alternative metal either, like i said it has some alternative elements in it, it's not actually alternative
Written by BloodTears on 25.12.2007 at 19:14

I've heard of urban tales. I'm still not curious about them. Your review just made the feeling i had about them stronger.

well what they do they do pretty good, but if it's not your kind of thing you probably wont like it, a shame though


I'm not saying it is a bad review, on the contrary, it was pretty descriptive about what I would find. Thats why I think its not my thing yes. But you know, a few months from now I might be curious again, who knows
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29

Like you could kiss my ass.


My Instagram
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05.08.2009 - 23:59
Rating: 8
omjaimes
omjaimes
Suomi Rock Metal!!!.... Icon & The Black Roses brother?; is the same vocal? ... exist other bands that play similar like Lovex, Negative, Poets of the Fall.... so this band have other metal influences... a little bit more suomi gothic, more experimental and alternative... sometimes with a strange air of Doom; wherever have all this "cliches and emotional sounds" that push the european rock metal in pop charts... so......without doubt, influnced by Entwine, HIM, Katatonia ... think that this band could show us the popularity of suomi music around the world
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