Music: Victory Pill: Victory Pill

Our Take

Victory Pill may be a band that many of you are unfamiliar with, but they are actually quite a nice surprise. Formed by Jim Davies, the guitarist for well known dance/electronic band Prodigy as well as Pitchshifter, Victory Pill is an interesting mix between dark industrial and hard rock. And though there’s still a hint of Prodigy throughout the course of the group’s self titled debut, overall this release has a sound all its own.

What helps Victory Pill to stand out are its unique compositions. Davies took some of the electronic elements from Prodigy and added a slightly dark tone to them while adding hard rock guitar riffs over top of them. This results in some extremely catchy instrumentals that have hooks at just the right time to pull listeners in. The guitar riffs themselves may not be the most unique, but the electronic elements make them stand out even further, more so than other groups that have been trying to add an industrial style to their sound lately.

The vocals are competent, but lack the power that some of hard rock’s biggest names possess. Sure, the singing on Victory Pill’s debut is extremely melodic but it seems to be playing it safe. Whereas other hard rock groups have a distinctive punch/bite to their delivery, the vocals on this album seem to be holding back. Perhaps we will see if Jim Davies and his other two band mates can deliver vocals with more kick to them next time around, though admittedly this doesn’t hurt Victory Pill that much in the long run.

Though the singing still needs just a little more energy to it, this is ultimately a minor flaw to a very promising band. By combining industrial with hard rock in entirely new ways, Victory Pill stands out from the rest. Fans of Prodigy may not like it if they don’t like rock music, but those who do will find the band to be an interesting new idea from Jim Davies and also one of the better artists to find their way onto Corporate Punishment Records in recent months.

http://www.corporatepunishment.com

Chris Dahlberg
December 16, 2007