The Details
There is so much to say about the latest disc from Pahrump-based Onara, a band whose refusal to be relegated to one musical genre would otherwise be celebrated, but instead just makes listening to Too Big to Fail an exercise in patience. Not only does the band leap from metal to psychedelia to ska across the entire disc, but it also does it within individual songs, creating the rock equivalent of a bad mash-up.
Songs such as “You Know My Mind” and “29.99%” rage against Wall Street bailouts and financial mismanagement, but the political overtones of the album are undercut by the grating growl of lead singer Ron Ferraro, whose voice is most tolerable on songs such as “Billboard,” where the band approaches Dinosaur Jr. territory—somewhere the quartet might more successfully spend its time.
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