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CellOut: Superstar Prototype
CellOut Superstar Prototype album new music review

CellOut: Superstar Prototype

Modern Heavy Rock
3.0/5.0

Nuerra Records
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by Craig Hartranft, 07.04.2011

I wonder if CellOut knows what their band name also sounds phonetically in English? 'Sell Out' in common English usage can mean having a product and then vending every available piece until there is no more to sell. In other words, the product 'sold out.' However, colloquially it is used to describe a person or thing, in this case an artist or band, that abandons their creative integrity for personal gain or commercial appeal.

While this may not necessarily apply to Sweden's CellOut since, after all, their debut album Superstar Prototype finds them in the modern heavy rock genre at the start. However, they may have, at the outset, capitulated to current musical trends at the very same time. Fortunately, among or against their peers, depending upon your perspective, CellOut does very well in the modern melodic heavy rock field.

Typical of modern music, CellOut's Superstar Prototype offers a soundscape that blurs hard rock and heavy metal; it's post-grunge melodic heavy rock. Mix in the several elements of heavily riff based arrangements, latent hardcore vocals, and expected breakdowns, and CellOut is on the mark. Set Things Straight, Breathe, and As I Fall are typical of the genre, and fine examples of CellOut delivering modern heavy rock goods. Conversely, sometimes CellOut can offer more. For instance, early on, Dark Days and All My Demons, while offering some of those aforementioned notes, deliver very catchy, very accessible, melodic heavy rock. You think they're on to something good against, once more, their peers. But alas, there's the rest of the album.

Give CellOut credit for pursuing their chosen genre: they are quite good. But are they bringing something new to the table? Perhaps not. Superstar Prototype is likely a misnomer they may regret in the future. Yet, they may have an audience in North America. It seems current American listeners don't care where it comes from or what it sounds like as long as it sounds the same as everything else being pushed upon them. Ultimately, modern heavy rock fans will dig CellOut's Superstar Prototype.



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In Short

Give CellOut credit for pursuing their chosen genre: they are quite good. But are they bringing something new to the table? Perhaps not. Superstar Prototype is likely a misnomer they may regret in the future. Ultimately, modern heavy rock fans will dig CellOut's Superstar Prototype.

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