This Is My War // Voice of Men (feat. Ameen Misran)

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/VoiceOfMenProduction/

Voice of Men is first and foremost a male harmony vocal group from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The group primarily identifies themselves as such, and have proven it on reality shows such as Awakening Star and Akademi Nasyid. Additionally, these men have attained #1 spots on local radio. Voice of Men also serves as a music production company with other industry services such as marketing. Most recently, they have released a new single called “This Is My War” featuring local Malaysian poet by the name of Ameen Misran.

The song begins with a creeping piano riff that builds over Ameen’s spoken word. His delivery is one of the most interesting aspects of the tune. While he is inflicting emotion and emphasis in his words, the rhythm and rhyme transform his poetry into rap lyrics. The caydence is quite enjoyable on its own, but it is hard to interpret his words as the distracting production overwhelms the lyrics.

The lyrical content of this song are that of a typical positive anthem. Looking at them, I would easily consider the lyrics to be the weakest part of “This Is My War”. However, when actually listening to the song rather than reading the lyrics, the bare-bones approach works. Looking at Ameen Misran’s past work as a poet, I have seen his higher potential rather than what is on display here. Overall, his input on this tune is integral. His “rap” opens out of the single, follows up the first verse, and then alternates between every other verse/chorus opposite Voice of Men.

The vocals from Voice of Men are also to be of note. Strangely enough, there are minimal to no harmonies to be found in “This is My War”. Harmony-powered groups such as NSYNC and Backstreet Boys are the biggest influences of Voice of Men, but instead they took a different approach to this song. I fully support any band/musical group to branch out and experiment with their sound. Unfortunately, the group’s true strength is found together rather than the lead vocal focus. If Voice of Men integrated a heavier music background, perhaps they could utilize the rap-rock-pop formula better like DC Talk and Thousand Foot Krutch.

Overall, Voice of Men has shown great potential in their work on reality show Awakening Star. This new single is an interesting collaboration with Ameen Misran, however, it is not a great showcase for Voice of Men. I cannot help but feel that both Ameen and Voice of Men gave their low-tier work on this single. “This is My War” is a great song of encouragement and it will speak to some people both personally and spiritually. From a musical standpoint, this is not the best work from Voice of Men. The soaring lead vocals are decently enough to carry the song, but I do believe that they have a potential to be truly outstanding. It will just take solid lyrics and a reliance on their primary focus of being a male vocal harmony group.

Review by Ian Zandi