This Trio was formed in Pennsylvania in 2008 and play heavy metal to the core. The vocals sound a lot like Dave Mustaine via Megadeth. The lineup on this release features Jaron Golino on bass/vocals, Alex Kulick doing guitar/vocals, Danny Piselli behind the drum set, and additional vocals by Zach Wilt. This album was released last year (2011) and there isn't much good that I can say about it. I'm not bashing heavy metal at all, but On Top has a lot to learn how to play it effectively. I'm hoping that in the future they brush up on their sound, they're still very young musicians.

The songwriting features riffs that aren't overtly complex. There's no song on here that's really noteworthy or memorable. The album is a pure disgrace. The guitar riffs are filled with chord progressions, easy segments of music that doesn't stick in your brain. After 3 spins I still can't say that this album is by any means worthy of praise. The songs are just monotonous and the vocals are distasteful. The lead vocalist can't sing whatsoever. Even the backup vocals are putrid. I have nothing pleasant to say about this band.

Their music is just a joke to the heavy metal genre. Yes, the guitar solos are somewhat technical, but the songs themselves aren't good at all. All of the tracks are boring and stale. I regret ever hearing this album because it's so poorly played. I feel badly for the genre as it makes it into a pure crutch. Their music features nothing but lame guitar and bass with drums backing the poor guitar work and distasteful vocals. I can't say that they have much potential, but maybe. I'm in no way opposed to heavy metal itself, just bands that don't know how to play it.

The production and mixing are awful. The vocals drown out the guitar work, the bass is audible, but flat and the drums were kind of hard to hear the snare. Honestly, I haven't heard such poorly played heavy metal until I heard this album. What a disaster. It's no surprise that they're not on a major record label or have their own website. They're an unknown and they will stay an unknown if they keep playing distasteful metal, if you want to even call it that. Let's hope that in the future they will mature.

Overall, this album has not 1 song that I can say that I liked. A real waste of an offer to the metal community and heavy metal genre itself. Completely terrible output and I encourage people to stay away from this band as much as possible because they make like I said before heavy metal sound totally ridiculous. No way would I pay money for this release. Maybe someone with a poor taste in music would get this, not someone that's got intelligence enough to listen to a sample first before making any kind of judgement. Pure waste of a release. 'Top Heavy' is despicable.

Rating: 2 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
02/03/2012 16:50