If memory serves, Banks Arcade’s debut was…alright. It helped wash away some of the taste of Bad Omens’ reign of terror on metalcore, which, in hindsight, might’ve made it seem better than it was. Still, at the time, the whole nu-metal / alt-metal / trap / electronics thing was in a relatively fledgling state, so there could’ve been something to be curious about. Hope springs eternal, even a few years removed when nothing good has emerged from it.
…yeah, that was a mistake; what the hell is this? Is this some kind of Mandela Effect and Banks Arcade were this bad all along? Surely not, not when the thing that springs to mind most is sace6’s abominable debut brutalist from earlier in the year. The only pro that Banks Arcade have going for them is that SECOND PLACE SUPERSTAR isn’t quite the single most turgid slog on the face of the earth.
They’re making a good go of it, though. The seppuku of adopting a Mitchel Cave-style vocal affect feels rather definitive, especially when Joshua O’Donnell was significantly better with his natural voice on Future Lovers. And yet, the pet peeves burrow their way in from the very first song MOVE. Forced, laboured breathing = smouldering ‘intensity’, don’t you know? From there, it’s the mushy, drowsy diction of a bad Post Malone impression or an adequate Chase Atlantic one. It’s bad at a baseline; it’s worse when O’Donnell jerks and staggers out of time on MIRROR and KNOW ME, or drools out his lyrics on WAIT. And the less said about the horrendously unappealing Playboi Carti impression on YUCK!, the better.
It’s a total mystery why any of this is employed. It doesn’t make Banks Arcade look good, or facilitate some bold, new direction that was previously unavailable to them. And yet, SECOND PLACE SUPERSTAR goes into this all guns blazing. Metaphorically speaking, of course; you’re listening to a different album if you can realistically describe anything as ‘blazing’. Gone is any alt-metal resemblance to Thornhill or Ocean Grove’s creativity, replaced by slow, overweight djent-things that are never interesting. This tactic of impenetrable pacing as a shorthand for drama has only grown more tiresome, and Banks Arcade aren’t even disturbing that trend, let alone breaking it. It’s a bland, formless nothing of a sound, and the furthest thing removed from excitement in ‘heavy’ music.
And yet, when you put everything together, it just feels even worse. It’s hard to even glean the appeal of this, such is the effort that Banks Arcade put in to flush themselves of creative charisma. On one side of the equation, there’s the mind-numbing metalcore thuds bereft of variety; on the other, the dozy trap miasma, where the sluggish murk is treated as a feature instead of a crippling flaw. And that’s essentially everything that SECOND PLACE SUPERSTAR has to offer. There are parts that extrapolate outwards from them but not very far. By the end of any given ‘movement’, you’re never wowed or shocked in a positive way; often, it’s the opposite. ROCKSTAR is frankly jaw-dropping in its laziness, as yet another rewrite of every alt-trap song with that same title. Later, 000 (named after the tablature of every single track, presumably) sounds like it’s malfunctioning with how its individual components clash and collide. Finally, HAVE FAITH brings us to the end in the most nondescript way possible, as synths lurch and groan without any form, thrust or real ideas within them.
So, to summarise—terrible vocal form; an approach to metal that pays no mind to flexibility or diversity; the same narcoleptic trap production that will never get better through unchanged iterations; and an utter bore of an album when combining the three. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
At least there’s the tiniest peak of a silver lining with LAST TIME, where restraint, fluidity, room to breathe in the mix and a not-bad chorus call to mind Banks Arcade Mk 1. It’s buried neck-deep in the garbage that this band has become, but it’s here. Though at the same time, it could also be one of those carrot-and-stick techniques of a band trying to convince the listener that they haven’t totally lost it. They can still do what they used to; just stick around and maybe they will again! And you could do that, but more of this just doesn’t seem worth it. Banks Arcade already had a brighter path ahead, and instead of following it, they’ve turned around and tumbled off the cliff directly behind them. The waste of potential is one thing; the utter disinterest in even taking it into consideration is another entirely.
Also, ‘second place’? They’d be lucky to get on the leaderboard at all with this.
For fans of: Chase Atlantic, sace6, Bad Omens
‘SECOND PLACE SUPERSTAR’ by Banks Arcade is released on 25th September on Arising Empire.
Words by Luke Nuttall