DAUGHTERS OF MARA, BY “ISNTATOTALDOUCHEBAG10”
[A longtime MS reader who comments under the name “isntaTOTALdouchebag10” wrote us a series of emails about Daughters of Mara, calling them an “underappreciated rock gem” (an assertion with which I’d agree). He pleaded with us to write a post about them on MetalSucks, to which I replied “If you do it, I’ll run it.” So without further ado, here’s isntaTOTALdouchebag10’s unedited story on Daughters of Mara. -Ed.]
Daughters of Mara in a nutshell…formed briefly by Shawn Zuzek back in 06 or something, wrote a debut album for a major label but got fucked over and it was never released, yada yada yada…they broke up and now Shawn Zuzek does solo shit which is just as fucking awesome. OK now the music.
Everyone has their bands that when you hear other people of similar taste say “Oh, I don’t like them”, it causes our eyebrows to raise because in our opinions it is just so damn good. It’s different for everyone, Daughters of Mara are that band for me. This, their only album, has it all, tasteful in every way, heavy, melodic, a sense of groove, peaks and valleys, and best of all, memorable. Each song has something unique about it
Shawn Zuzek puts out one of my favorite vocal performances ever. An amazing singer who I could pick out in a crowd in an instant. Metal vocals are many times, a detriment to the music (why do you think cloudkicker is so awesome?), and it takes a lot for me to really connect with the vocals and the lyrics. His voice is unique (anyone know anyone that sings and screams like that) and he sings and screams every word like he means it and the lyrics are great, (I would compare it in a way to Jesse from Killswitch on AOJB). Nice and pissed and perfect for the music he plays.
The music is also great, varied, really heavy at times, tasteful emotive solo’s, its just awesome.
This song is about all the record label bullshit, makes the lyrics even cooler. So anyway, people should download this CD (easy enough to find) and listen to it. Shawn’s solo stuff which he also has posted is also amazing, The song innocence lost is about as epic as a 5 minute song can get, seriously check that shit out, lyrics at the end let you know he isn’t going the christian band route for those of you that care about that kind of shit. You can listen on his myspace which also lets me know he is releasing his solo album this year. Awesome thanks, if you want to hear a great CD, check this one out.
Krang10
