Of Human Bondage "The Goat Sessions Volume 1" CD
[Sinister Sounds]
Well, this Canadian band has a terrible album title here, and it's indicative of a fairly terrible album as well.  Nine tracks that run anywhere from one to six minutes and jump from weird death metal to raw black metal with a lot of dissonance and subtle melody that seems to be inspired by the Norwegian style.  The latter genre is the more prominent approach, and I kind of like some of the riffs, but the vocals don't really do much for me, and I'm not into the sparse uses of keyboards or samples either.  The biggest problem?  The production.  It's got one of those total boombox recordings, but it doesn't really carry much aesthetic value here, partly because the guitars are louder and crisper than everything else.  So it kind of sounds like the drums and vocals were recorded live with a couple of mics and then the guitars were laid over top of them or something.  There's some bass in there too, but it basically sounds like a rugged layer of guitars hovering over raw, distant sounds.  There's not enough of a balance.  I think they could pull off that style of recording with this guitar tone, but the vocals would need more aggressive appeal, and the drums should be a little more vibrant as well.  The most annoying attribute of the songwriting is when they randomly break into ambient noises and spoken vocals that are pitch-shifted down a few steps, because it sounds ridiculous and doesn't create any sort of atmosphere or anything (not vocally, anyway).  Some of the shorter songs also feel unfinished - as if things are chopped off and end too abruptly at a minute or two in total running time, which is somewhat confusing.  I'll give ‘em this, though: You can tell where they're coming from and what they're going for, but they're not generic.  Some of the riffs are creatively strange (and almost effectively so), and even though I dislike those little ambient breaks that is an element that could provide some variety if they ironed out the weaknesses.  The layout's not that hot, it just doesn't do much for me, though I've seen worse.  Meanwhile, aside from some rhyming that breaks things up a bit, the lyrics are abstract enough to be more interesting than the album title and all of the satanic imagery might suggest: "A cold flame washes over the field, Torn by an image of a past storm, The sky ablaze in glorious rage, Alight the flame of heaven's last gate..."  If they ever get far enough along to release "The Goat Sessions Volume 2" (I won't be surprised if they don't), I'd rather not have to deal with it unless a lot of improvements have been made.  But then again, I'd also recommend against them ever using such a silly album title again, so...  On occasion they hit on some potentially powerful shit too, notably in longer cuts like "The Summoning" and "All Hell Cries", with the unlisted acoustic instrumental also possessing some intrigue, but they've gotta get away from this unfocused songwriting and substandard demo sound quality. (3/10)
Running time - 24:16, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: there are cool riffs here and there but I'm not into the complete songs]
Sinister Sounds - http://www.sinistersounds.ca

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