Review by Alex Grindor on May 15, 2023.

Death metal trio Bottlekopf continues their assault by delivering The Jokes Are Over. A very straightforward, in-your-face display of death metal dealing with the constant personal struggles one has. Although their career is relatively short (this being their second album since their inception 13 years ago), Bottlekopf holds nothing back in its music.

Musically, the instrumentation is tight with very little variation but still packing a heavy punch in the guts nonetheless. Guitar riffs and leads are well executed and the bass' weight is present throught the album. The drums never rely on over-the-top displays of inhuman frenzy, but rather choose a more controlled delivery that still crushes and beats you down. Vocals are competently executed and, despite being low growls, are quite legible. I do however feel that the music lacks some variation, as many tracks end up sounding the same at moments. Nothing terribly wrong with that but I like a bit more of variation. Despite this, the record as a whole has a constant groove that swirls amidst the brutality, which is more notorious when the band is at its slowest, like in track 11: 'Brainwash'. Production-wise, everything is crisp yet clear enough. It is a well-mixed album and nothing is left behind, everything has its level of clarity. From drums up to vocals, everything just sounds great.

With a near 50-minute runtime, The Jokes Are Over is a well executed, if a little repetitive, death metal album that shows Bottlekopf improving their work as a band. If you like your death metal a little more groovy a la SFU (but with a competent vocalist), then Bottlekopf is a great choice to consider. I was not enthralled by this album at all but still enjoyed it and commend the band nonetheless for its great sound and packing quite the punch despite being a trio.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Review by Jack on September 8, 2002.

Pretty hard to pigeonhole these lads from The Rise, stripped down to the bone is a hardcore band with a passion for experimentation and a burning desire to walk a different path to what many of their genre mates do. I am a strong believer that the metal genre as a whole contains some of the more imaginative song writing ideas from all genres of music. One thing “Signal to Noise” benefits from is not particularly subscribing to the hardcore/punk sound and perhaps, predictable song writing process that does take place by a lot of ‘lesser’ bands in the hardcore area.

My favorite aspect of The Rise is their ability to break up each song with maybe a metal lead, followed by a pumping electronic beat and then possibly backed up with some wall-to-wall hardcore chorus thrown in for good measure. I am not the biggest hardcore or electronic fan in the world, but yet I find myself drawn to The Rise for their ability to merge many very different areas, but The Rise have a rare ability to do it extremely well.

“Signal to Noise” is a bit of a weird album. I don’t particularly like the vocals all that much and some of the electronics beats do seem a bit obscure. However, if you throw them together with some of the other elements that The Rise is able to concoct and you have a very cool album.

Bottom Line: While not advocating to either metal, punk, hardcore or emo, The Rise does throw all the aforementioned in a blender and the end result is “Signal to Noise”. This would not work if it was not for strong song-writing and that “Signal to Noise” oozes intelligence. Even if you don’t particularly like the above styles of music, you could do a lot worse than be exposed to some memorable creativity from The Rise.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 7
Originality: 8
Overall: 6.5

Rating: 7.5 out of 10