Sinai Beach "Immersed" CD
[Victory]
Damn, I thought this thing was gonna be ridiculously awesome since it opens with a brief instrumental called "Apocalypse" that starts out with nothing but all out mosh, but then they threw in some shitty Nine Inch Nails sounding industrial synths and messed it all up.  Thankfully they tend to hit the mark more often than not, but with a little work they could really destroy.  Expect a solid foundation of chugging metallic hardcore with moderate tempos and a little bit of modern groove ala their labelmates Bury Your Dead and such, while the vocals are generally screamed with a few forays into lower grunts and singing.  Hence the problems begin.  Now, the "singing" isn't horrible, but it does come close, and I did hate it the first time I listened to the disc.  By the third time around I was able to deal with it more, but rather than actual full blown melodic singing it's really just a monotone drawl that's somewhere in between similar vocals from bands like Vision of Disorder or Life of Agony, just with an extremely limited range and a less stable performance.  More obnoxious, though, is the fact that every time the singing kicks in the vocal patterns are almost identical.  No matter what song it is, when the dude sings he hits the same notes in basically the same patterns and sort of flexes the pitch a little higher at the end of the line - almost every single time.  And believe me, that can get tiresome.  The dude either needs to chuck the singing or work harder at sounding more convincing, but I'd vote for tossing that crap - the screaming is great and these songs would benefit from keeping it aggressive.  "To the Church" is among the few tracks that brings the electronic elements back to the fore, and I can't say I have much of a tolerance for that stuff here because the whole techno vibe that shit's got happening clashes with the mosh, you know?  (This song in particular is pretty terrible since the singing is both at its worst and its most prominent here, followed closely by the overbearing singing "harmonies" in "Return to Dust", so... I can't really hang there.)  When it comes to crushing power chords and no nonsense heaviness these guys can certainly deliver, and I respect their attempts to diversify, but god damn... they'd be a better band without any of the extra trimmings!  I don't mind the subtle melodic elements, such as the leads or the little dissonant chords.  They're fine there.  Thrashier tunes like "The Stagnate" and "Ignoring the Conditional Response" would be immeasurably more effective without the unnecessary shots of singing, though.  A damn shame.  The recording is pretty good.  It, too, could use some tweaking, but I'm satisfied with it as is.  The guitar tone has a little bit of a groovy churn to it that keeps it from sounding as full and sustained as it should, and the bass isn't all that prominent in the mix, but I do love the sound of the screaming vocals.  The percussion is pretty damn rigid, but it's got some meat to it as well, so for the most part I can live with that.  Ideally the drums would sound more natural, but a beefier and less overdone guitar tone and giving the basslines more room to run around would be my key suggestions.  I'm digging the layout for the most part.  The subject matter of the imagery (serpents, fallen angels, etc.) is typical but the overall aesthetic is cool and the type is nice and clean.  The lyrics are almost always dealing with christian topics, but I have to say, even though I disagree with such opinions these dudes are taking a much different road from most of those bands - a much more vicious approach that's not that preachy and tends to come at things from different angles.  "You rapists, you abusers, you thieves, you murderers.  I've taken a look around and all I've seen leads me to believe that if I was god heaven would be nearly empty, and hell made overflowing, So thank god that I'm not god..."  Me?  If I was god, I would not let this kid sing.  But seriously, there's a definite air of quality about this release, and I actually want to like it, but I just can't let that singing slide.  It's a significant and disappointing detriment to their overall impact.  I haven't heard any of their prior work so I don't know if this has been an ongoing issue or not.  I'd easily give this a 7/10 were the vocals all screamed, however.  No doubt.  Maybe next time... I hope. (6/10)
Running time - 43:24, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Obedience Through Desecration, The Serpent's Letter]
Victory Records - http://www.victoryrecords.com

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