The Number 12 Looks Like You - Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses

The Number 12 Looks Like You
Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses
Eyeball Records
Grade: A-

There is a little something for both hardcore and metal fans alike in this superlative re-release. Like what? Well for starters, The Number 12 Looks Like You exhibit a sense of genuine, albeit twisted, humor… technically impressive musicianship (you can’t be all mathy without it)… screaming angry-guy vocals + bellowing demon-guy vocals (sometimes simultaneously)… slightly gratuitous nonmusical interludes (including the four final songs comprised of intervals of silence divisible by the number twelve)… and even a nouveau-classical guitar piece (also possibly gratuitous). Originally released in 2003 and since out of print, The Number 12 Looks Like You (replete with new label) has seen fit to re-release this record and rightly so, as it is worth hearing for its relative mathcore merits. As far as gratuity is concerned, perhaps those nonmusical tracks need to be kept within the context of the whole in order for its parts to work, for Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses is something of an anachronism; it is a concept album in an age where concept albums are increasingly antiquated in the context of mp3 players and media PCs. Many people will probably delete those nonmusical tracks anyway, for example after importing the CD into iTunes. Are listeners really going to sit through the 12:12 of silence at the end of this album? Does one need a high variable bit rate for compressing silence? What I like about this band beyond their music is that it isn’t afraid to pose these kinds of difficult intellectual questions.