Tagged as “Anime Metalcore”, Becko plays a cornucopia of different genres of music, ranging from EDM to Hip-Hop to Metalcore. Prior to reviewing this, I was unfamiliar with this artist’s work, having only heard what our own Scuttlegoat, Metalligator, and Trans-Dimensional Being refer to as “absolutely terrible”. Needless to say, going into this I was not expecting much, and wow, I got exactly what I was expecting.
I am well aware I am not the target audience of Becko, but I find myself wondering who IS the target audience after listening to this album. The styles present here work well on their own, but together sound like an odd combination of (mostly) scream-less A Day to Remember and a generic EDM act. In short, it’s a mess. Anime styled voice samples are also present throughout the album. By far, the worst song on this album is “LOW-KEY GUY”, with a whispered Japanese voice sample layered over a frantic synth beat. If there’s one positive about this release, it’s that the song “HYPNOTIZED” is the least offensive song present. I don’t mind this track, as it sounds like something fit for jamming in the background while playing a video game. Much of the album seems like it’s geared for video game background music, but the songs are so incredibly annoying that it would make me lose focus rather than have this going during a video game session. It doesn’t help that Becko ham-fistedly shoves different genres and EDM styles into their songs akin to throwing things at a wall to see what sticks.
I try to approach everything I listen to with an open mind, to get the most out of each new thing and see the positives in it. I’ve not been tested as hard to do so as I was on this album. With songs ranging from being tolerable at best to excruciating at worst, I cannot in good faith recommend this album. There are plenty of other EDM-forward artists to select for club music or video game background music, such as Gabry Ponte, Lucky Luke, or Gaullin I would recommend in lieu of Becko. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find something to torture my co-writers with. Avoid this.
