This split contains the work of two French bands that share a good chunk of their members (three of the members from Donefor are also in Overmars) but play almost entirely different styles of music. Overmars starts off their three-track run with the monstrous 10+ minute "Narcissus", which takes almost three minutes to get going with some slow and droning clean guitars before blasting in with full-blown distortion, drums, and even keyboards, as well as absolutely scathing vocal screams (of course). I'd say they're sort of in the vein of Cult of Luna or some of those other newer bands that are putting their own spin on early Neurosis, but with a rawer sound and a strange sort of progressive rock influence lurking on the far outskirts of the material. It can be noisy and abrasive at times, but it's not what I would call chaotic, as there's always a sense of explosive rhythm and feeling in there. "The Good Doctor is Still a Good Target", which runs right around nine minutes, offers up tons of heavy, nasty distortion chugging away alongside calmer vocal shouts and some light feedback. Later bass and drums dominate while some experimental guitar and synth textures float around in the middle, and things get more and more intense thereafter. The recording doesn't bother me at all. I think if it were thicker and perhaps cleaner the band would be absolutely destructive, but this warm and rugged sort of sound (rugged in tone, but not overall quality, as it sounds nice) works in their favor as well. It gives them a natural sort of aggressive texture that matches their musical delivery perfectly. The lyrics are in both French and English, with French song explanations. The band's English seems a bit rough, and it's not so easy to make out what they're shooting for: "The most stupid thing is that you've got now the occasion to start something new and you imprison yourself. A bitter life for a bitter person. I can't do anything for you. I can't bear anymore your stinky speech mainly built around financial considerations. We're not just flesh to feed and shelter..." Good work. I didn't know what to expect, but they've certainly got my attention. Donefor offers up only four songs, but double the length of material as Overmars. Their style is a bit more direct as far as being melodic metalcore with gruff vocal yells/higher screams and a good sense of dissonance, but they're definitely better than average. Sure, they mix melody and discordance, and vicious breakdowns with smooth clean passages, but the writing is strong and the music isn't cheesy or anything like that. And thankfully there's not a shred of melodic Swedish death metal to be found - these guys take their melodic influences more from the obscure indie rock side of things and let the guitars and bass do a lot of work independently of one another to create a more intricate "big picture". There's a lot of interesting contrast here, and they pull it off for the most part very nicely. The main reason their material lasts so long is that the final track, "My Black Turns to Your Grey", contains an ambient soundscape at the end that clocks in at about 25 minutes of the 28-minute total running time! It's a great track, though. Even the lengthy experimental segment is very fucking well done. As for the sound, the vocals definitely dominate the mix a bit much, and the clean passages retain more density than the heavy parts, which is odd. The heavy guitars are actually too thin, and the rhythm section doesn't pick up that slack. (Oddly enough the rhythm section is quite full during the clean breaks.) So I would definitely call for a balancing out of the sounds when it comes to the dynamics here. The clean parts sound quite good but fall a bit flat when things switch over to distortion. Not bad, but a more effective recording would make an enormous difference. This time all of the lyrics are in English, still with explanations in French. I'd say the same goes as far as their use of English and the mystery of their message: "Always eager to show others who's the boss, Constantly pissing on beauty to mark the spot, Doggy fucker knows the rules and sticks to them, And god he loves them so much, so much..." I like the layout. It's mostly black with simple text and some unusual visuals of octopuses and such. There aren't many colors but the colors used stand out vibrantly against the black backgrounds, and truth be told the fonts and images together really make this thing look like it was designed in the 70's or something. Very odd, but I definitely like it. This is a damn good split. France has a lot of creative bands going on, I just hope that they don't continue to be so often overlooked by the rest of the world... I believe Donefor has since broken up, which is a damn shame. But look out for material from both of these bands nonetheless.
[self-released]
Running time - 66:04, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Narcissus, The Good Doctor is Still a Good Target, Lost in the Fall of a Movement, Losing Ground]
Overmars - http://theovermars.free.fr
