Violet

Five Inch Nails Parrot-more Evian-essence Ain’t Ettiene

Violet is a rock album by The Birthday Massacre. It is the kid of rock with some electronic, shoegaze and emo influences. The singer sings with a little girl voice that gets on my nerves. What I do like are the whispered singing parts (f.e. in "Happy Birthday" and "Lovers End"). That is not enough to make it original and the compositions are average and all songs seem the same with the same guitar+synth sound.

Perhaps a bit ahead of its time at release, but woefully dated now. The lyricism feels somewhat cheesy in its attempt to be edgy, and the songwriting is firmly rooted in the Evanescence-like pop goth of the early aughts to the album's detriment. Did enjoy some of the guitar parts here and there, but the lack of any real mixing meant the tracks felt top-heavy without any nuance. Credit where credit's due, this LP does commit to its thematics and execute on them – just not something I would personally deem 1001-worthy.

Parts of this are potentially intriguing - mood shifting, the often-annoying-yet-also-creative and intentional mood swings of the vocals, simplistic keyboard melodies over industrial "guitar" wall of sound... Alas I just don't connect with this at all. The song structures end up boring me and honestly that absurdly processed massive wall of guitar is really not my thing / too much. Points for a unique take on image/style and I kinda love their overall purple motif/artwork. 5/10 2 stars IMO: Belonged in the book? No.

Am I allow to give negatives? I wish I could give negative. It is just so lame. A poor man's Evanessence (which is already just a terrible band). 1/5

Hello, I am list finisher #803, and this is one of my three submissions to the user list, this specific one being the end of list pick. Instead of doing a review like I usually would, I will explain why I picked it and why I think it's a worthy addition. First things first, the version to listen to is the "reissue". Wikipedia lists the original release as 30 minutes, I believe this is for the original demo that was released on the band's MySpace, and that all physical releases were the 45 minute "reissue". Rateyourmusic and Discogs corroborate this info. If the version you're listening to is 44-47 minutes long, it's the right version. The simple reason as to why I picked it: There's no darkwave on the main list. Darkwave has been a historically important genre for the development of modern western pop music, and it seems to be getting a new wave of popularity since the late 10s, so it's becoming a relevant genre again. There are a few debatable darkwave albums on the main list (Floodland, Music for the Masses, Treasure, Violator, though I think that last one is pushing it) but I don't think any go firmly into the category, so let's fix that! Also the secondary genre on here, industrial rock, wasn't represented that well on the main list in proportion to its importance, so two birds one stone! I don't think this band is revolutionary, but I do think they have their own distinct sound, love it or loathe it. The Birthday Massacre wear their influences on their sleeve, they love The Cure (which you will know come the end of the album), but also Nine Inch Nails, and Depeche Mode, and in mixing these styles they come up with something unique, a style of darkwave that utilises crunchy industrial rock riffs, alt metal heaviness, but blending that with light and cute synthpop hooks and with an underlying goth rock theme. Basically all of the songs on this album follow that formula, though certain elements are accentuated depending on what TBM are going for (e.g. Holiday which is far more in the synthpop direction), and sometimes the alt metal hints are removed for the softer songs. The downside to this is that they stick to the sound a little too hard, so while it's fine for just one album, when listening to their entire discography they all kind of sound the same. The most common complains I see are with the lyrics and vocals, and that does bring me onto the big problem, The Birthday Massacre are... a little bit cringe, especially in the Millennial way (a.k.a. the best generation). Lyrically they don't have a whole lot of subtlety, mostly dealing with mental health and societal struggles, the latter of which I think is being misinterpreted as emo-esque "no one understands me" type lyrics, although I guess it does come across like that occasionally (e.g. Play Dead). Vocally the singer sounds like what a "lol so random xD" type tumblr user from 2008 would sound like if they started a darkwave band. That said I like her singing, including that awkward growl singing thing she does on the metal songs. I think the awkwardness bolsters the perceived sincerity of the songs, but I get why it would annoy people. I genuinely don't understand the Evanescence comparisons, outside of the goth theme, being somewhat metal, and having a female lead singer I don't think there's many other points of comparison. I don't regret my pick, I know it's been lambasted here, but I think The Birthday Massacre captured a great sound that is unlike anything in the main list. If I do have a regret it's that I chose Violet instead of the following album, Walking With Strangers. Walking With Strangers is far more popular, well received, and more well produced. On that album they go harder with the metal influences, but also with the synthpop and their sound feels overall more developed. I chose Violet because I prefer it as an album and also I think it's influences are a more pronounced, making it easier to dissect.

okay this fucks, like the individual ideas just don’t really seem like my kinda thing, but it actually comes together in a really great way - 9/10

Somewhat heavier electronic rock music, with pop-influences. Liked it a lot!

​Violet succeeds because it completely commits to its own distinct identity. While some critics note that it borrows heavily from retro 80s aesthetics or features slight structural repetitions, its cohesive tracklist flows seamlessly from front to back. ​It manages to be simultaneously eerie and uplifting, nostalgic and fresh, making it a foundational record for the dark electronic rock scene and a high-water mark in The Birthday Massacre's discography.

3.5 It's very rare I listen to an album and think "this is fun". Industrial/gothic has been hard to come by on this list, and although it was long ago I was into this, I couldn't help but getting a warm fuzz of nostalgia with the first two tracks, harked back to early NIN or when Marilyn Manson was fun and not a rapist. Album definitely peaked after the first two tracks, but still some other enjoyable ones - Blue for example. Mid 3's but I'll round up to offset the low score.

Has kind of an 80s girl power group thing going on but occasionally kicks it into a much harder gear. Cool!

4 enjoyed

Didn’t think I was going to enjoy this as I read the reviews. I get the comparisons to Evanessence and Nine Inch Nails and some of that ilk, although The Birthday Massacre seems a little lighter than those groups. Maybe not my new favorite band but I did enjoy listening to it.

This is very cool. 4 stars.

2000s industrial rock but with poppy affects. The band has described the contrasting elements of their work in relation to their name, "Birthday, and massacre. Light, and dark. Cute, and evil," and I think that's an apt way of putting things. The gritty guitar tones and booming drums give the band their industrial-sounding edge, while the pretty synths and clean vocals give the band a unique take on the existing genre. A little dated in sound and not particularly my preferred style of rock music, but certainly not bad either. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: Probably not. I think earlier, primitive forms of industrial rock ought to be explored though, like Swans and Foetus.

Was promising to start off, but degenerated into glittery goth-pop pretty quickly. It's an interesting genre, but this band kind of sucked, so I'm going with three stars.

Electronic rock, gothic rock, new wave. Ni fu ni fa.

So much potential, but also so much never really delivered. I honestly don't know why, but the whole album sounds like something I could love, yet it ended up being just enjoyable at its best.

Tech-noir, in lyrics and vocal delivery self-serious, kind of mopey. I didn't despise it but very much not my thing.

Favorite Track: Happy Birthday

Nothing super groundbreaking or memorable but still pretty solid alt rock. The vocals are nice and clean and there's some good production here.

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Happy birthday

Idk fun kind of 80s vibes

The cover made me think this was some sort of Kingdom Hearts soundtrack or something. Overall I found it a bit dull. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No

Goth

Not my style but it’s pretty catchy

When the vocalist is called Chibi you know it’s 2004

Not bad

This was pretty cringe.

This album didn’t really do much for me. The mixture of gothic, pop and electro sounded interesting on paper, but ultimately came across as a bit gimmicky rather than particularly groundbreaking. There were a few decent moments, but overall I found it pretty forgettable

This seems like that kind of album you grow up with and deep in your soul know that kinda sucks, but it means too much to you personally. I'm sure I'd love this if I'd heard it as a young lad with a propeller hat on my head and a big lollipop in my hand. Alas what can you do. 2/5.

no new things here

Violet sounds older than 22 years ago, not that it sounds 80s-esque or anything, it's just quite a dated record from the genre or adjacent types and seems quite shallow as a result. It's not heavy enough to be metal, it's not quite emo, it tries to throw in some electronic, it tries to throw some indie at times too, I saw a review say it's pop-goth which is probably fair but it's not really one of the better examples of that genre either. I don't like the mixing much, the vocals are constantly drowned out and it seems intentional, doesn't work for me. Some it is overall an okay listen, Black was my favourite track, but it doesn't do enough to get above a middling 2/5.

How can I write a proper review when the one currently topping this section so *hilariously* sums up the whole affair? Actually, I had already given that take a thumbs-up a couple of weeks ago, as I browsed through the generator, because of how funny those puns were. And since it was a "neutral", three-star review, I wasn't taking a big risk "liking" it without even listening to the album at the time, you see... In truth, I would take The Birthday Massacre over Evanescence any single day. But that still makes the bar so frigging low, of course -- far lower than the requirements demanded by this list, imho. For a record that probably only had a fraction of the budget thrown to an Evanescence album, the production of *Violet* still has enough slick and glossy characteristics, I'm gonna give it that. Yet the sound in this 2004 release also has its two feet firmly planted in the era that saw it happening, here in a dated fashion that yields zero overall charm, unfortunately. Worse, the compositions are subpar or predictable (a clear exception with the Garbage-adjacent "Holiday", which is great overall!). And that main singer's performance is close to awful. The warts on it are so visible: the forced inflexions, the unimaginative vocal lines, the micro-seconds when that singing is out of tune... And in such slick surroundings, those flaws become unforgivable. Actually, the whole shtick of that singer would sound far better -- or at least come off as less annoying -- if auto-tune had been used for it. It's quite astonishing that I'm coming up to this conclusion -- I guess that years and years of use of that digital tool in music as of 2026 have taught me a little about its aesthetic assets for that sort of umbrella genre The Birthday Massacre dabbled into. You can bet your boots a band in that genre would not think about it twice and use this tool today... To put it in a nutshell, and as another perceptive reviewer summed it up, *Violet* feels both dated (the sound, the performance, most arrangements...) and ahead of its time somehow (the use of black metal grunts next to the pop shenanigans on "Blue", foretelling the more unhinged mix of styles you can hear in some acts right now, for instance). And even if you put all of that aside for a minute and assess the songs for what they are, you don't get much from the formula anyway... I would suggest to the user who submitted this to listen to the albums Grace Ives, Charli XCX, underscores, Fire-Toolz and Boards of Canada released this year to hear how those sorts of tones and textures they seem to enjoy can be harnessed to create some artistry that *really matters in the grand scheme of things*. The arrangements, stylings and performances are wildly different on those records, true. But they share one thing with *Violet*: they mix up pop and melodic impulses with an amount of grit, and they do it in a manner that can truly speak to your imagination. The person I really want to address here is not the user who submitted this album, though. No, if I could, I would stare and frown at the singer from The Birthday Massacre instead... "You don't get any dessert! Go to your room! You've been obnoxious for close to an hour now, and I am fed up with your constant wailing! Go to your room and don't get out of it until tomorrow morning! Off with you!" Oh, and... happy birthday. Cruel? Probably. But kiddies should know better than stepping on my toes when I try to find good stuff in the generator. You've been warned! 😜 1.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 2. 6.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 1.5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 117 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 120 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 271 (including this one) ---- Émile, *quatre* nouveaux messages pour toi au dessus, du *Solid State Survivor* de Yellow Magic Orchestra au *Atrocity Exhibition* de Danny Brown

The cover art matches the album well. Both computery and lightly goth. Childish. Quite cool on first impression but the "deeper" content is a bit simplistic. I do like the idea of a bunch of songs with color names. They actually could have leaned into that a bit more.

Interesting but not something I’ll go back for more of

more parma than beauregarde #dnf

This wants to be Debbie gibson meets nine inch nails. But it's not cute enough for your former, and so safe that it can't be the latter. The reality is it's a sanitized version of something it can never be. And it... Well. This sucks.

Guhhhhhh. This was difficult for me because I'm going into this not liking it because this genre just isn't for me at all and it's always horrible to me and I fear this helped solidify that opinion. I absolutely hated the whispering in my ear while all chaos was breaking loose music wise. Like what even was happening. There was a singular cool moment where there were some cool sound effects but then got ruined again. Massacre is right.