{"id":24082,"date":"2014-03-10T16:02:15","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T16:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:33:39","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:33:39","slug":"album-review-alaya-thrones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Alaya – Thrones"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Alaya<\/strong> are the latest shiny new product from Los Angeles: a city responsible for delivering unto the world outstanding music in the past, but equally as culpable in producing vast swathes of rock-orientated doggie-do that starts off thinking it\u2019s something pretty special and ends up in the CD bargain bin in Banardos.<\/p>\n

Luckily for Alaya<\/strong>, the kids don\u2019t buy CDs anymore anyway. Nevertheless, their debut release \u2018Thrones\u2019<\/em> is deeply flawed and makes a right hash of representing a band who are talented enough to write something far, far better.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The main issue it suffers from is a major identity crisis. Not knowing whether to play to their strengths and passions and write a metal album or pander to the masses and go MTV friendly, Alaya<\/strong> tried to do both things at once and ended up tripping over their own feet.<\/p>\n

It begins with \u2018Inside\u2019<\/em>, stabbing tech-metal supported by a thundering double-bass pedal. They initially come across as an adventurous lot as they dive into a poppy, alt-rock verse-chorus-verse structure, before building into a layered, almost proggy outro.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a curious opener but not a strong one, because despite the musical variation and talent on display, at no point does it feel like the flavours are properly marinating. You could leave the song for 60 minutes in a pot with a well-prepared sauce, seasoning and plenty of garlic and it still wouldn\u2019t have any taste when you served it.<\/p>\n

The vocals, handled by guitarist Evan Dunn, are engineered to sound very atmospheric and theatrical, and this is in part achieved in the studio with plenty of production and effects going into this element of the music. The end result is something that sounds like it\u2019s taking itself way too seriously given that it\u2019s essentially accessible music for young people.<\/p>\n

Frustratingly you find yourself loathing some of the tracks on \u2018Thrones\u2019<\/em> and almost deciding you absolutely cannot stand them or listen any longer, and then they\u2019ll hit a sweet spot and you\u2019re thinking, \u201cWhy the hell didn\u2019t you do this the rest of the time?\u201d This mainly happens when they decide to drop all the pomp and nonsense and just write straight out pop music.<\/p>\n

\u2018Poor Gloria\u2019<\/em> has an insanely catchy melody to it as Dunn\u2019s voice surfs majestically over a shimmering, ethereal riff. You want to put it on again straight away and have to remind yourself that a few minutes ago you were wondering where the nearest Banardos was.<\/p>\n

Later track \u2018Thrones\u2019<\/em>\u00a0shares the same head-nodding qualities whilst the rasping cries in the heavy yet spaced-out \u2018Sleep\u2019<\/em> makes it sound like Vheissu-era Thrice (yes, that IS a good thing).<\/p>\n

Ultimately though, it\u2019s not enough to rescue the record. Most of the tracks have quite unusual constructions, yet they\u2019re so mid-paced and with such conventional elements, so archetypical of what audiences expect to hear these days, that the cynic in you can\u2019t help but feel annoyed at Alaya<\/strong> for not taking more risks and using their very apparent abilities to give us something more bloody exciting\u00a0 than this.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018Thrones\u2019<\/em> is a deeply confused record, struggling to properly orientate itself and staggering about haphazardly like Bambi leaving the pub. My best advice to Alaya<\/strong> is that they need to stop pootling about and decide who exactly they are, so they can write their next album with confidence and make us all happy. At least they tried to be different, and with the right balance I don\u2019t think their next effort will be this bad.<\/p>\n

2\/5<\/p>\n

‘Thrones’<\/em> by Alaya<\/strong> is released on 17th March on Basick Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Alaya<\/strong> links: Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Alex Phelan (@listen_to_alex<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alaya are the latest shiny new product from Los Angeles: a city responsible for delivering unto the world outstanding music in the past, but equally as culpable in producing vast swathes of rock-orientated doggie-do that starts off thinking it\u2019s something pretty special and ends up in the CD bargain bin in Banardos. Luckily for Alaya, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5070,5879,519,10587],"class_list":["post-24082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-alaya","tag-album-reviews","tag-basick-records","tag-thrones"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlbum Review: Alaya - Thrones - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alaya are the latest shiny new product from Los Angeles: a city responsible for delivering unto the world outstanding music in the past, but equally as\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Album Review: Alaya - Thrones - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alaya are the latest shiny new product from Los Angeles: a city responsible for delivering unto the world outstanding music in the past, but equally as\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-10T16:02:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-17T15:33:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_inline_n26wx4VUH11qheirv.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Album Review: Alaya - Thrones - Already Heard Staging","description":"Alaya are the latest shiny new product from Los Angeles: a city responsible for delivering unto the world outstanding music in the past, but equally as","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Album Review: Alaya - Thrones - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"Alaya are the latest shiny new product from Los Angeles: a city responsible for delivering unto the world outstanding music in the past, but equally as","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2014-03-10T16:02:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-17T15:33:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":150,"height":150,"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_inline_n26wx4VUH11qheirv.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3"},"headline":"Album Review: Alaya – Thrones","datePublished":"2014-03-10T16:02:15+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-17T15:33:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/"},"wordCount":624,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_inline_n26wx4VUH11qheirv.jpg","keywords":["Alaya","Album Reviews","Basick Records","Thrones"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews","Post"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/","name":"Album Review: Alaya - Thrones - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_inline_n26wx4VUH11qheirv.jpg","datePublished":"2014-03-10T16:02:15+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-17T15:33:39+00:00","description":"Alaya are the latest shiny new product from Los Angeles: a city responsible for delivering unto the world outstanding music in the past, but equally as","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-alaya-thrones\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_inline_n26wx4VUH11qheirv.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_inline_n26wx4VUH11qheirv.jpg","width":150,"height":150},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38545,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24082\/revisions\/38545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}