Review: Paria “Misanthropos” CD

This is the usual frantic and chaotic metalcore that comes from this label, though this band is definitely more diverse - blending chugga styled breaks with caustic chords and typical speedy pull-off riffing, a few sludgy rock parts, odd time signatures, curious discordant textures, brief hints at overt Swedish tinged melody, etc. It's not bad, better than average in fact, but my key problem here is that the songs are way too motherfucking long. These dudes will throw 500 riffs into a five-minute song with very little repeating, so it's one of those things where they string riff after riff after riff, which is impressive in the "How the fuck do these guys keep these songs straight?" category, but it don't make for much of an enjoyable listen, you know what I mean? The quick acoustic passage in "The Absurdity of Solace", for example, builds into an intense layering of dissonantly melodic chords, which is fucking awesome, but then it's over in a flash and never returns. So... I really feel that the band would be better off stripping it down to the strongest riffs and trying to construct songs around a solid core rather than putting together every note combination they've ever fiddled with. And take the seven-minute "...Human Error", which has some killer stuttered rhythms, but drags on and on and on with a blur of flurried notes and changeups that you can't even wrap your head around, so there's no linear path at all. "9 Years" brings in some more slick clean passages and melodic lines that definitely leave a mark... so, man, I really fuckin' wish these dudes built more on variations on a theme or two rather than diving in headfirst without looking around at all. There's an unlisted cover of Primus' "Too Many Puppies" at the end of the disc, but it's honestly pretty terrible... so... stick with the original on that one. Sans being slightly muddy I like the recording, I'll give 'em credit for that as well. All of the tones are great and the mix is solid, I just wish there was a little added brightness in there to pull things out a little more. The bass gets lost and the drums need a little more of a natural low-end presence, but the guitars sound amazing and the screaming vocals are dead on the mark. They've got a really professional sound in gear on this one. And as with most releases from Blackmarket I'm digging the layout here. Everything is nice and consistent with a brown-ish color scheme using some wallpaper types of patterns with repeating images of dots and a butterfly against crisp text and some abstract layers of color/texture that aren't really recognizable. The lyrics are nothing special, just personal exploration and whatnot, but I do actually enjoy them since the approach isn't too blunt but still makes its point. Something about the content just works for me. "Let Down, Time after time after time after time after time, Ripped apart in a moment of self realization, Then captivated by the beauty of fire and brimstone, This is the place that we've come to know as reality, This is life." As players these guys have some shit working in their favor, and they do write some impressive riffs. The downside is that they also write some weak riffs, and they don't write good songs. Period. You can cut a few bits and pieces out of these songs that are pure face-smashing brilliance, but there's not one complete song that kicks ass from start to finish, much less from start to the two-minute mark. There's just too much going on. If they streamline things in the future I'll be the first one to stand up and take note... while for now I've taken interest but have yet to be reigned in by these kids. Hopefully they'll floor me the next time out.