Madder Mortem "Deadlands" CD
[The End]
What the hell? I've heard good things about this Norwegian band, but this is my first time hearing them, and after the first three tracks I was confused out of my mind. After an interesting introduction of experimental electronic textures and spoken vocals they break into the super overproduced grooves of "Necropol Lit" with somewhat bland female singing that doesn't show a whole lot of range at all. Then eventually the singing really starts to open up over some intricate melodic riffing and everything (musically and vocally) starts to sound a lot better, but the fucking groove riffing is awful - it literally sounds like some shitty Korn rhythm or something. But then "Omnivore" is 100% stronger across the board with plenty of creative melodic riffing that sort of has that neo-black metal feel to it as far as the chord formations (not the tempos), plus there are some excellent clean breaks and the vocals are far more versatile, venturing into tasteful operatic territory... Thankfully that tends to set the bar for the rest of the record, as things sway back and forth from the creatively melodic and aggressive to the lush and calm, all with some impressive vocal work that can at times lend itself to some damn catchy choruses (see "Rust Cleansing"). Some of the groovy crap does rear its head again from time to time, but never as obnoxiously as in "Necropol Lit", and there are actually some awesome progressive types of influences that mesh with the stuttered rhythms on occasion that totally make up for it. Just check out the dual guitar riffing in "Faceless": There's some total prog metal meets quirky math rock type of stuff, even down to the bass runs and the percussion. The 10-minute "Resonatine" contains probably the most atmospheric and laidback passages, blended effectively with some of the overly simple chord progressions, also showing the band's more progressive and adventurous side. There's definitely a surprising amount going on here, and they pull it off. I like the recording, it just needs to be a little bit brighter as a whole. The drums and vocals sound pretty much perfect, the bass sounds excellent, and the guitars are great during the more complex moments, though the chunky rhythms are sort of flat and overproduced with that really modern metal sort of sound. But the mix is otherwise strong and everything sounds really professional. I'm not fond of the layout aside from the nice dull brown color scheme and the superb typeface used throughout, though. The imagery of the corroded industrial landscapes usually looks great, it's the people that look goofy and sort of ruin it for me. The general aesthetic is in keeping with the album title, but the facial expressions and generally overdramatic nature of the people photographed for the layout sort of gives off an air of cheesiness. I do sort of enjoy some of the lyrics, however. "Oh, little fingers that toil under weather and sun, Your backbreaking labor is earning you nothing but hopes undone, Here nothing is sacred; what pride there is left will not hold, The price of your failure is shown in the trinkets that weigh you down, I'm swimming in obscenity that gives me not one second's peace, Mirror all my faults and flaws, crack jokes at all that I'm made of, Weeping in our restlessness, we're dreaming of the lucidity of peace..." In the end I really like this disc a lot. Far more than I ever would have imagined from the horrid "Necropol Lit" (which should not even be on the record in my opinion, much less be the first full-blown song presented). Ignoring that track this is an amazingly interesting and promising disc, so I'm going to have to check out some of their prior work now. Very good. Recommended. (8/10)
Running time - 57:09, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Omnivore, Rust Cleansing, Distance Will Save Us, Resonatine]
The End Records - http://www.theendrecords.com

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