Starting off Gothtober with some death rock from Helsinki Finland. I often bring up the fact taht certain regions seem to be more vibrant in terms of the vibrational frequency of the kind of music that seems to be fervent there, some noted examples would be Seattle/grunge, Norway/ black metal and Tampa/ death metal. The point being is goth or goth tinged music in varied degrees seems to come out of this region. These guys are however a mixed bag in terms of song writing. I prefer when they catch a slinkier more dynamic groove like they do on the second song rather than the more straight forward punk paced songs that seem to be the more common formula in place here. "Bed Room Eyes" at least as some catchier accents in it's chant. These guys used keyboards and have some atmosphere so it's not a total punk thing happening.
They slow it back down for "Another Shattered Dream". It's these moments where you can hear the most Christian Death in what they do. The singer doesn't have the greatest voice , but does have a Rozz Williams like whine, though only of a fraction of the personality in it. He needs to go off his meds or shoot some more dope for me to believe him. The two songs after this both sound the same, as they bang them out at the same snotty tempo. They briefly let "Cat of Nine Tails" breathe. The more atmospheric "Memories" is cool even though it feels more like an interlude rather than a song . It works off a whispered chant and is disjointed. It doesn't go anywhere , but is a cool dip into experimentation that they need to incorporate more into their song writing process.
While it's always hard for me to argue against the cool death rock guitar sound, as it's to my ears the perfect combination of effects for a non-metal guitar tone, a awesome guitar sound doesn't make a song. It does along with the proper tension on "Gallows" help balance what might other wise be lets just dial in some punk and call it death rock styled song writing. The bass really needs to be up in the mix. I think that is this album's biggest problem. I think death rock needs to have bass that is dirtier sounding than the Cure or Bauhaus as that along with the sleazy attitude is what sets it apart from goth. With this in mind "Torments" is the guitar stealing the show, but without much support from any one but the drummer. This is better than some of the second string versions of Bellicose Minds that I have heard trying to pass themselves off as Death rock, so I'll round it up to a 6.5 so it's not wowing me.
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