Gothtober - Fearing : "Destroyer"

 

This California band at least has a fair amount of hype for it in my in-box , and perhaps the rest of the States considering they have toured with a pretty diverse range of bands. They do play the droney wall of reverbed out dark wave that is the picture of this round of modern goth. I can't say goth revivalist as goth never died it just changed forms over the years and many of the genres staples have keep going. The first song makes me feel like the hype might be warranted as the sound they captured is kept moving in an interesting enough manner, but on the second song I find myself wandering what else they can do as it feels like a slower version of what they opened with. 

The vocals are more spoken than sun in the requisite baritone, but it is hiding in some m many effects, it is hard to tell if he can sing or not, but I know what is for certain is he needs to prove he can do more to me than what he is doing now. As it stands there is less range than Ian Curtis. Talking a little lower seems to be his answer on the title , which finds a moodier phrasing to his talking and the guitars wandering a bit. He does try to sing a little more , his voice goes lower to do so. I feel like this album really hangs on if the singer can deliver. He tries to croak a little lower on "Let it Grow" but it is not wowing me, and actually beginning to bore me. 

"the Sun Sets on Me" might be the best song so far, is slithers out of the shadows with an impressive groove and the haze of gloom the vocal mutter from works well. The guitars have more of an early 80s Cure feel. The song after this just kind of drones past me, though it reminded me I need to email Night Sins management about a show they are playing this week , so maybe there is that mood. The album continues to plod into the gloom, but very little by the way of dynamics until "Gravity" when the tension picks up and allows them to rock out a bit. This where my problem  with a lot of this lies is there are so many opportunities to build it into something that really rocks out but the bands seldom have the balls to go there. He does try to sing more on the last song, which does go some where, proving at three points in the album they can elevate their songs beyond the status quo. I will give this album an 8, they are better than most but show they are capable of more.