“BRENDON SMALL is the co-creator/ writer/ actor/ director/ producer/ of ADULT SWIM’S METALOCALYPSE television series. Brendon Small is also responsible for writing and performing all of the show’s music and DETHKLOK: THE DETHALBUM and DETHALBUM II, the latter now known as the fastest-selling death metal album to date.

Now, Brendon has written and produced BRENDON SMALL’s GALAKTIKON: “A High Stakes Intergalactic Extreme Rock album”, his long-awaited side project set to release in April 2012. The album release will coincide with the Season 4 premiere of METALOCALYPSE.

Coming off of the second DETHKLOK album which was heavier and darker than the first, BRENDON SMALL’s GALAKTIKON searches for melody (in the vocal) and finds inspirations in modern black metal, Queen, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer. No influence is unwelcome on this project. Brendon Small paired with DETHKLOK drummer (legendary metal drummer) Gene Hoglan (Dethklok, Strapping Young Lad, Testament, Fear Factory) and DETHKLOK bassist Bryan Beller (Dethklok, Steve Vai, Mike Keneally band) and DETHKLOK engineer and mixer Ulrich Wild.

“This album should be thought of as an audio comic book, an over acted chamber drama, a ridiculous premise that takes itself way too seriously all the way to the end,” states Brendon Small.

BRENDON SMALL’s GALAKTIKON comes as a follow up to Brendon’s work on the chart-topping DETHKLOK albums based on METALOCALYPSE and released by Williams Street Records. DETHKLOK: THE DETHALBUM debuted at #21 on the Billboard Top 200 with over 30,000 copies sold in the first week and held the “fastest-selling death metal album to date” position originally until the follow-up, DETHALBUM II, surpassed it to break the aforementioned record with a #15 debut on the Billboard Top 200. DETHKLOK has performed on several US tours and headlined the Los Angeles kick-off date of the 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival.
For all up-to-date information and to purchase BRENDON SMALL’s GALAKTIKON, please visit brendonsmall.com: your one-stop-shop for everything involving this new project. You can also catch more intermittent updates on Facebook at www.facebook.com/brendonsmallgalaktikon and follow Brendon Small on Twitter at www.twitter.com/_brendonsmall.”

“Trust No One” is an effort that takes on a few shapes before it decides to settle on one. There are flashes of guttural growls, sharp shrieks and chugging breakdowns in one hand, while the other one employees a more melodic route with cleanly-sung choruses and crisp, technical guitars. Even as the album opener “Never Trust The Hazel Eyed” plants its roots with the aforementioned delivery, I intended to keep my distance — not wanting to get sucked into the vapid screamo culture of bands like Motionless In White and Black Veil Brides that have surfaced in recent years to placate pre-teens angst. And while Hope Dies Last‘s lead singer Marco Calanca‘s dramatic clean vocals feel like they are cut from the same pretentious and annoyingly theatrical cloth as vocalists like Vic Fuentes (Pierce The Veil) and Andrew Biersack (BVB), they are kept grounded by the rough throat exercises provided by Daniele Tofani (innuendo very intended) and an equal dose of progressive fretwork and fastidious percussion, the last being the product of founding drummer Ivan Panella.

Besides a slew of charging and engaging guitars on tracks such as “Unleash Hell” and “Bill’s Got Only A Pair Of Queens,” most of “Trust No One,” blindly treads along, without contemplating its rhyme or reason. This leaves much of the record with a bland or lacking personality that is only separated by interludes of wonderment, aka the echoed-piano, rhythm factory of “The Blue” and the lovely sung effects paradise “Icarus (Halfway Across The Sky)“ as well as the albums quaint cover of Katy Perry‘s song “Firework” (not fast enough for “Punk Goes Pop 4″?) which adds to the sum of positives with flashes of canorous beauty that appear from Marco Mantovani‘s 6-strings and the thumping backdrop of Becko’s basslines.

Hope Dies Last does it right, not getting too brick shit-house heavy that they forsake their clean vocals and sugar-laced harmony, and not too soft that they feel like every pop-rock band in existence. The balancing of the two styles, with a focus on the details (orchestral accompaniment, digital alteration) is what has made me love bands like Underoath, Broadway, The Devil Wears Prada, Dance Gavin Dance, and more, early on. Sure “Trust No One” is a little late to the punch with these, now-obligatory, styles, that may feel rinse and repeated by now, but there are enough challenging solos and aggressive fretwork, not to mention theatrical presentation and vocal range to warrant a listen. Even if it is doesn’t last long, much like Snookie’s soberness. Take that made up Italians! [Staff]

Score: 3 (out of 5)

Release Date: February 14th, 2012
Record Label: Standby Records
Genre: Screamo/Post-Hardcore
RIYL: Attack Attack!, Broadway, Motionless In White

Track Listing:
1. Never Trust the Hazel Eyed
2. Sidney Shown
3. Unleash Hell
4. Life After Me Life After You
5. The Blue
6. Bill’s Only Got a Pair of Queens
7. This Song Plays Suicide
8. Air Raid Siren
9. Firework
10. The Same Old Fears
11. Icarus (Halfway Across the Sky)
12. Keep Your Hands Off