The first thing standing out is it's blatantly the bands most accessible work to date, from the Alice in Chains ...and that's me being kind to not draw Metallica comparisons on the vocals. The very organic feel of the production doesn't play into what I consider the bands strength. The guitar sounds very thin on the faster propeller picked riffs. I be more initially impressed if I hade never heard them before, the Devon Townsend worship gets carried a well as well. The clean vocals really don't get this album off to a good start for me, there's a protest the hero vibe going on as well. The guitar solos which normally don't woo me away from a bad taste a song puts in my mouth sweep pick in to save the day, so if you are into shredding you have to own this one.
This Autotheist trilogy is pretty smooth sailing if the guitar tone when not soloing doesn't irk you and the sappy over wrought prog vocals aren't too much. Before I knew it I was already on the third movement . If ihsahn did this , it would sit better for me because it would be transistionally consistent with the direction he's been heading, these guys took a leap that will have the brootal brood screaming sell out. Right off the bag I liked the anti religious nature of the lyrics which are more biting than the other neon hoodie wearing kids doing this kind of thing.
It is my first listen to the album, maybe the sound varies dramatically when listened to on head phones. As far as the non trilogy songs go, "accelerated evolution" doesn't wow, me and is kinda boring , I guess it could fall somewhere near the ounces of what is considered djent, but to be honest feels empty and the heavy element isn't that convincing.
The metal core, good cop bad cop vocals which were all the rage in the days of maybe loose their effectiveness. I normally prefer melodic singing but think for these songs harsh is better and the cleans are so prevailent they need to be balanced. The solos have started to lose their flare midway into the album.
Will kids fall for this is what I find myself asking. Will the metal press pander to kids and try to act like this is a masterpiece ? The punches of the strummed guitar are pretty cool but it's one of the few well that was different moments. If you are well versed in metal then you will be able to pick out the blatant winks at their idols on this. Which is shocking to me because I was under the impression these guys were on the level with wanting to create new music which combined with their chops put them ahead of all the other tech metal with hardcore hair cut MySpace scene kids.
If I am going to be honest all this disappointment of an album has is a collection of a few moments bookended by a bunch of over but not well produced nonsense so it's easy for me to give it the three it deserves, I'm sure the ignorant fools...called teenagers who don't have an education in metal and like stuff like periphery will be into this. if you are a guitarist who whats to hear a few great solos add a point and a half as you will block out everything else around them. I can't wait to start working on another review as I feel like I need to shower with real metal to was this crap off.
No comments:
Post a Comment