What used to be a fine line between derivation, parody and the real thing is so blurred now that it no longer really matters, so when a record like As Above, So Below comes along, appraising it on it’s merits becomes very much an eye-of-the-beholder guessing game.
Highly Suspect started out playing covers in Cape Cod bars, until following a move to New York they struck it semi-big with their double Grammy nominated first album Mister Asylum in 2015. It’s fair to say their fortunes have been mixed since, but after flirting with genres on 2019’s MCID it appears they’re back with the musical program, a mode that borrows out of five decades of rock’s pantheon from Aerosmith to My Chemical Romance.
There’s a kind of gloomy-doomy cartoon schtick at work here, with plenty of references to drugs, partying and taking your life into your own hands and on the likes of opener Summertime Voodoo, Suicide Machine and Champagne At Our Funeral it works pretty well. More trad rockers will also surely love the soapy ballad Melatonia and The 8th Of October (To August 17th) gives Shinedown a run for their money, but if it’s substance you’re looking for then you may have to take your book of incantations somewhere else. Derivation, parody or the real thing, As Above, So Below is comfortable being whatever you want it to be.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 