This band out of Cincinnati opens their album with a more shoe gazing instrumental of guitar and synths with percussion so minimal it might as well not be there. This makes "Unwanted" the first actual song. The way the synth bass leads in it makes me think of music I used to make when I was on a ton of drugs. The dance tinged beat takes this out of the more narcotic realms. The vocals are plaintive in a more New Order fashion. If the vocals were emoted differently then this might have more of a "goth" feel instead is a shade darker than your average new wave band. He does go a little more in a starker baritone for the next song "Gardens" and this is accomplished with better effect. Lyrically this song is interesting as the garden being referenced here is the one from Eden. If you know me you have to know that any Biblical subject has to be handled in at least an indifferent manner for me not to get turned off by it.
"Shadows" is more upbeat with the reverb heavy guitar providing a more typical post-punk tension in it's hypnotic drone. The synth bass line keeps it dancey, while the vocal ponder a disaster of love in a Interpol like manner. The more new wave feel dominates "New Clear Dawn" with a more Depeche Mode feel to the guitar part. This is another lamentation of loneliness. This is employed in a similar formula but with a more pop angle on "Misanthropy". Things get much darker for the more minimal "Careless". This brand of darkness is not spooky, but despondent. Blade Runner like synths running along the song's back bone.
The album closes with the title track. The beat to this song is a little more like the Cure. The vocals remain detached and monotone. The song is pleasing to the ears but doesn't really go anywhere dynamically. These guys succeeded in crafting the kind of sound that pays homage to the glory days of the 80s without getting to mired down in having super hip lo-fi production. It sounds crisp and every thing is well placed so I will give this one an 8.
Here's an Ohio based project that has been getting a fair amount of buzz in recent days. I suppose at it's core it's black metal in the same way Agalloch is black metal. This is another one man band, though John Kerr gets a little help from his friends as a couple take care of the guitar solos, bass and samples. The black metal is dialed back in a direction leaning more towards the kind of epic mid paced folk that bands like Moonsorrow have mastered. The production is no where as big as Moonsorrow. The project's strength is the love the songs are given. They are thoughtfully arranged and engaging. This is not the blackest or heaviest, but has a lot of heart and the guest guitar solos are very tasteful in the same manner Agalloch's hints into shredding were.
The songs are well written no sprawling pieces of drone. The drums have a very raw feel to them, they are a little on the dry side sonically. "Where the Sky Ends" is more black metal than the previous song. The rasped mid ranged vocals are plenty angry. Despite the acoustic break in the song it feels like it stays in the same relentless energy through out the song, making it less dynamic than "the Dull Earth". There is more of a thrashing gallop to "Monumental Collapse". I am not a big of the really stiff snare pop that has a more punk feel to me, but the guitar solo is great. "Empty Light of Heaven" is more of an interlude than a song. There is a more mainstream metal groove to the epic build of "Forks of the River". There is a low sung chanted vocal that swells up from behind the guitars.
"Feathers on the Breath of God" takes what has worked before on this album and ties it up neatly in a well composed song. It's black metal and blasty without burning you out on all the conventional trappings of black metal heard from hundreds of other bands. The album ends with another instrumental, which tempers atmosphere with the more traditional metal attack. It feels more like an outro that something standing alone. I'll give this album an 8.5, didn't really compel me to load onto my iPod as a must have, but it did remind me what I miss about Agalloch. This is still a fine album, for someone who is looking to replace the void left by Agalloch or is too young to even know who the hell Agalloch is and just getting into metal.
Raw and rooted in punk, this Ohio band is more about nastiness and being loud more than adhering to the expectations of any genres. When their singer snarls about some one being stabbed in the face forty time, he proves to be a storyteller who needs little suspension of disbelief. The verse to grind down into a more metal groove, but this feels more real than most metal. The samples of news stories covering sexually assaulted corpses, gives this a similar shade of gruesome glory that Acid Bath once had. He gurgles lyrics like "mommy told me not to play with dead things" to create a wonderfully morbid web of white trash horror stories, this could be "the Hills Have Eyes" set to music. The line "I don't care how you got here/ suicide is cool with me" is worth the price of admission into the second song. Too many bands have their vocals as an after thought with even less attention given to the lyrics, so these guys take me back to a time when lyrics mattered in metal.
"The Big Turnout" is a crusty ode to women in prison. It's not a bad song, but it's grooves just don't do as much for me. "Destitute" is more deliberate in it's darkened plod. A more Sabbath like tone takes the riff at the two minute mark. They employ varied levels of chug more often than not on this song they are more sludge ridden. Perhaps it was the clean care smell of hearing them for the first time that I recall, but "Smoke Acid Shoot Pills" doesn't carry the same twisted charm the first few songs had. Yes, some of the riffs are heavy as fuck, but you know the rule around here is cool riffs alone don't make a song. "Loyal to the Foil" is about smoking crack and most of the album is about some kind of degenerate drug use. "Detox" is another drug crazed rant, I think I might like the energy behind it better than the more dirt bag gutter punk metal of the previous song. They regain the cracked out charm they had in the first few songs here.
Overall this album is fun, it's like Acid Bath, without the clean vocals and trippy sections , which you would assume is what Goatwhore would sound like. That's another thing this band has going for it, is they don't try to be blackened anything. There is not a blast beat in sight. If you are a regular reader of this site then you know I like black metal, I'm just tired of bands being what they are not. These guys are themselves. I'll give this one an 8. Some of the more straight forward moment where the lyrics are not as in your face begin to lose me, over all solid album though.
