Envision me shaking my head in disapproval, looking to the sky, hands in the air, screaming, "Why? Why are you doing this to me? What have I done to deserve this?" This band sent me their CD in an enormous binder that probably cost them $3 to buy and another $5 to ship, and normally such a fact wouldn't be relevant to a record review, but in this case it is. Reason being, any CD that arrives in an enormous binder is going to suck. There's no doubt about that. It's a documented fact: If your CD shows up in a fucking huge binder, your CD does indeed suck. Why? Well, maybe because sending out a CD in a huge binder is a fucking stupid idea, and if you'll make a stupid decision like that, why wouldn't you make the stupid decision to waste your money recording and producing a CD that sounds like a mix between Disturbed and Marilyn Manson? Yes, that's what we've got here. Weird, weak metal with lots of sneering "wakka akka" vocals, keyboards, groovy rhythms, a few actual bits of straightforward metal, drums that often sound programmed, etc. They try to be all dark and atmospheric with the keyboards and some sustained guitar lines that sometimes have a weird middle eastern sort of feel (as do some of the weird, twangy clean parts), but it's all just a big mess of crap. Let's call it what it is, folks. It's ugly. I can listen to it without feeling like it's imperative that I destroy the CD immediately, and it's not so literally terrible that I start to laugh to myself... but it's not good. There are very few redeeming qualities here, and I do not in any way feel the need to bother trying to pick through this material to describe the one or two moments of tolerability. And I hate the layout. It was attempted to be handled professionally, but the artwork and typefaces are incredibly childish and unappealing. Every song title has an icon devoted to it, and those icons repeat numerous times throughout the layout, the background textures have a cheesy psychedelic Photoshop thing going on, etc. And the lyrics? "Stick 'em, Blood ceremony, Kick 'em, My territory, Kill them, Death matrimony..." Lots of forced rhymes, lots of silliness, I'll pass. I only gave this a 2/10 instead of a lower rating because the musicianship is competent and they do seem to have some ideas at work, even if they're not communicating them worth a shit. But seriously guys, not to be an asshole, but I hope you enjoy this music a whole lot for yourselves, because there is absolutely no way in hell you're going anywhere playing this stuff.
[self-released]
Running time - 33:43, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: they're all pretty damn terrible]
Daath - http://www.daathmusic.com
