Dead to Earth starts out with the 11+ minute "Dream Symphony/Your World Must Burn", but after nearly three minutes of promisingly raw and melodic guitars sounding off in the distance, the track unleashes some of the most horrifyingly weak "black metal" I've ever heard. The one-man band calls it "Black-hearted Isolation metal", but to me it sounds like sloppy noise that was recorded on a Radio Shack boom box. It's inconsistent across the board. One minute the riffing is totally incoherent noise and the drums are up front, the next minute the drums are way in the back and the chord progressions actually get pretty interesting, etc. But, man... the recording is so fucking awful that I can't take it. The only thing I like about it is that you can hear some bass and the vocals can be pretty wild when they're layered under some heavy reverb. "Only the Flesh of Whores" uses an awful sounding drum machine, thus making things get worse than I imagined possible. All you can hear are moaning vocals that are drowning in chorus/delay, the same repetitive blast on the drum machine, and a faint trace of guitars in the distance. Awful. I mean, I'm all for primal, raw black metal... but fucking do it right, and don't waste your time with this shit. There are some good riffs here and there, but that's not saying much. The lyrics are malicious, if not a bit immature. "The sight of mass death brings tears of joy to my eyes. The smell of carnage scorching, I inhale with pleasure and am intoxicated. To hear the shrieks, fire, and explosions are a symphony to me." No thanks. Next up is Shroud of Despondency, whose full-length really impressed me. This material is an equally raw (in a different sense) but more innovative and diverse form of creative melodic black metal. The riffing is a bit more technical (despite markedly slower tempos for the most part), the basslines play a larger role, the vocals are completely tortured screams/growls, there are some samples and clean guitars, etc. I love the guitar parts, that's what it's all about for me on these two tracks. I wish the mix was a bit clearer, but with this stuff the raw sound isn't nearly as bothersome. Now, I must say that with a better recording this material would be fucking astonishing, but even in this format it's rather impressive. The songwriting is just fucking great, despite a few minor performance flaws. This is a definite progression in the writing department. Lyrically this material is a bit better than Dead to Earth, getting more personal without sacrificing any negativity, "Where has all the light gone? Now that we've crushed the sun. Back in the moonlight's arms, Comfortable in my own world, Escaping your planet's suffering, Rejoice in this time of death..." Now, I have to say, this is probably the worst layout/visual presentation I have ever seen. It is completely shoddy and unprofessional, and quite honestly there's no excuse for it. I don't care if it's underground D.I.Y. this that or the other, this thing looks like shit. The entire package is made up of poorly executed and pixilated xeroxes whose master copies were printed from a crappy home printer (you can see all of the printer lines), and the layout was probably done in Microsoft Word, if not something even worse. The pages of the booklet are not attached to one another, the xeroxes are just folded together, the lyric sheet isn't cut anywhere close to straight... and the real kicker? On the back cover it states, "This is NOT a CD. It is a CD-R. DO NOT PAY MORE THAN $6 or 6?." Now, that is an admirable statement, but this thing looks like total garbage, and even $6 is a steep charge for something that looks this hideous. I'm sorry, but it's just a CD-R and a few crappy, half assed xeroxes. Get it together, do it right, and $6 is a perfect deal. But in this state? Fuck, charge people for postage and give 'em away. Seriously... I hope Shroud of Despondency re-records these songs for a proper release at some point, because those two songs carry this otherwise worthless joke of a CD-R.
[Rebarbative]
Running time - 36:14, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: the two Shroud of Despondency songs - "Speak in Silent Tongue" and "Breathless Against the Wheels of Time"]
Rebarbative Recordings - http://rebarbative.mercurous.net
