Set It Off’s sophomore album Duality is an incredible piece of work showing off the band’s sassy, clever song writing, the bands impressive musicianship and their passion.
The album opens with The Haunting which is a dark song that begins with some creepy piano work and impressive vocal work from the vocalist. The song is easy to sing along to and is a good way to open the album that has a lot of strings, a more pop aspect while maintaining an alternative aspect. The few drops the song has are very well executed and shows off the bands great instrumental talent while incorporating the vocals into the drops.
N.M.E. is a song that a lot of people could relate to, the lyrics are about a friend in a bad relationship you think he needs to escape from, the band use the clever wit of Cody Carson’s song writing to create an entertaining, sassy song that’ll make you think “Ooh burn”. The instrumentation is well done as well, the bass and guitar are well performed, it’s a dark song with some clever use of chants and vocal lines to make it seem happy. A very well written song.
Why Worry is definitely a poppier song the album which is vocal and drum-led. The bass and one of the guitars is a bit gritty and it does give it an alt vibe while keeping it a very feel-good song which will get you singing along and dancing easily. The guitar riff is really groovy and the band are experimenting with different genres, you can see this in the more rap vocals in the second verse and the groovy guitar riff. It gives a great message as well as feeling awesome. A great choice for the bands first single for the album.
Tomorrow, featuring Jason Lancaster, is a more rocky song instrumentally, the vocals are strong as are the drums. It’s a catchy song that builds as it progresses, adding more instruments It’s a strong song, but it needs more vocal power; maybe having Jason’s raspy voice in more than one verse would add that power and oomph, it seems a little bit like a filler song but it’s a good song. The guitar and bass lines are well performed and the song writing is really well done.
Overall it’s an incredible album showing the bands skill in every way, the only downside some of the songs sound like fillers. They’re not all at the same high songwriting quality which is a shame. A few tiny creases to iron out but it’s a stunning album.
8/10
