Aight , here's my brief review of LPUXIV:
1. Aubrey One:
Could have been a good album opener if they modified it, there is a big similarity to Wake/ Wake 2.0 with the intro noise. But the one octave note that gets played for a whole minute really wears you out, it's like all the guitar that Brad pays on LOATR. The intro to it is just too long and it doesn't climb fast enough, every new bar should have an added element for it to work. And about the Basquiat similarity, I like that guitar part. It is't like they haven't copied their own parts before. Nobody's Listening uses a sample from High Voltage, The Requiem and The Summoning are made up of samples, and songs like Faint/FTI and GATS/ALITS have the same chord structures.
2. Malathion + Tritonus:
Metallica song. No denying it. The piano intro is pretty and makes me think of Unforgiven III off of Death Magnetic. Speaking of terrible mixing, the drum mixing is off, the snare sounds too loud and you can hardly hear the hi hat. But the rest of the drumming sounds good, this must be the first time that Rob used a double bass in studio, based on what the Tritonus studio had. My only other regret for the song is that there is not face melting guitar solo. Brad really teases us with the one note with vibrato to it. That's how so many Metallica and Alice in Chains songs start their solos. If they do a followup to THP for LP7, this could definitely be on there. Probably my favorite from this release.
3. Berlin One, Version C:
Man these titles are weird. This song isn't much. The piano chords go nowhere after enough repetitions and the beat is annoying for a slow song like this. I hope the Version C part of it doesn't mean that there are more versions of this demo, because I can only imagine the first demo of it was one piano note and crinkling some tinfoil. I don't hate it though, but it wouldn't be album material. It would work better in Mall or a movie as filler music in the score.
4. Blanka:
Not too much to say about this either. It reminds me of one of the tracks from LPUXII that I don't remember the name of right now. The riff is chunky but whatever. Drums don't sound live here either. QWERTY.
5. Heartburn:
Now we're getting interesting! I like where they were going with this: harmonics (or keys, I can't tell) and small instrumentation. Any Nine Inch Nails fans here? Help Me I Am In Hell was the first thing that I thought of when I first heard this. Listen to this with headphones on so you can hear the bass better. This would be a fine interlude, but it may have been tough to put on MTM.
6. Breaking The Habit - Mike:
This must have been the first time that lyrics and vocals were put into the song as a test to lay down a rough draft because he wanted Chester to sing it. Mike had said in the Making of Meteora that he wanted to do BTH for years (ever since he met Chester), so this isn't even the song in its infancy. But this version and Drawing are good demos. The lyrics are definitely interesting for how they were changed into only first-person, and some parts were put into different sections (Memories consume starting the second verse). Say what you want about Mike's vocals, he just wanted to be able to give an idea for melodies.
7. Dave's Beat feat. Joe:
Cookie. I don't care for it for that reason, they should have given us a real song. The only thing that we get from this is a sign that Joe's sense of rhythm was gone by 2009.
8. Froctagon:
War inspiration. Drums aren't good on it and the guitar parts were recorded at different times. Similar to Malathion, there could be a solo but we get vibrato notes instead. Doesn't stand out at all.
9. Rhinocerous:
Cool demo. I can't tell which album this would work best on, but it has elements that remind me of other songs. The guitar and scratch is like By Myself, and the synth in the chorus is like one of the LPUXIII songs. I like the abrupt glitch toward the end too. Would have been cool with vocals.
10. After Canada:
I love the chord progression. Eb-G-Cm-G# is a great one that they haven't done yet (I'm not certain if that is a G or Gm). Vocals over this would sound great but Chester would have to really give it his all. The overall instrumentation is very good on it.
So I like some of it. Favorite tracks are Malation +Tritonus, Heartburn, Rhinocerous, and After Canada. Not as great as LPUXIII, but some songs are still good enough that I would listen to them again.