After a cheesy and bland intro (the title track) of keyboards and low, dramatic spoken vocals, this one-man band from Belgium (using guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards, and timpani) launches into four ridiculously long tracks (averaging 15 - 20 minutes each). I didn't know what to expect from this, I figured it could go either way... and sadly, it goes the wrong way. For one thing, the recording blows. The keyboards are way too loud, the bass is inaudible, the guitars sound like they were recorded direct, etc. The timpani sounds fine, as do the clean guitars and the brutal vocals, but the mix sucks. It needs thicker, heavier guitars with a lot more volume and a lot more crunch. But that's not the only problem. The songwriting is horrendous as well. This is one of the most boring CD's I've ever heard. It's slow, it's minimal, there's no energy, there's no movement... the playing and the riffs lack emotion. I don't know. I love a good, slow, mesmerizing doom tune, but this stuff is hopelessly devoid of power. The songs are so long that one track feels like an entire album, they just beat you over the head until you can't take anymore. There's not enough diversity, there's no real shift in dynamics... I don't know why the hell this CD ever got released. I'm not sure what to say. I'm not into the style of the synth orchestrations, I think the unintelligible low vocals are somewhat over the top, the guitars are useless since the tone is weak and there's no density there... Plus I really hate the layout, because most all of the text is rough and slightly pixilated around the edges and the artwork is nothing but computer-generated junk. Granted it looks better than most computer generated junk, but it's cheesy 3-D rendering and looks silly. It's all shots of a little arched pedestal with columns and torches and shit on it floating in the middle of some water from different angles. No thanks. The lyrics aren't that interesting either, sticking with your typical doom and gloom types of negative visions. "All of my ways, all of my dreams, so meaningless. More affection in my heart than in the world. Absence of will, absence of love, hate this world." Nope, no thanks. Stay away from this one. I could actually see this stuff being somewhat interesting if a few major changes were made to minor aspects of the delivery, but this is basically a wasted release.
[Firebox]
Running time - 67:52, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: none of them really stand out at all]
Firebox Records - http://www.firebox.fi
