By John Bedard
I love black metal, I love death metal, and I love blackened death. So when I received ‘Mesradh Machae’ for review I was excited. Especially because it is from an artist I had not heard of before. I get in my car to head to work, plug in my phone, hit play, and… thank the lord it is only 13 minutes. Even at the short length of the EP and only being two tracks, I was incredibly bored.
Musically things are not too bad. There is some decent complexity to a few of the measures and the tone is right for the genre, but it never really goes anywhere. Things are pretty repetitive throughout the whole experience. There is no real evolution. For some, this won’t be a problem but for me, it was just a bit too much to keep my interest. All in all, though it was an okay example of the style for the genre just did nothing to stand out.
Vocally, things get worse for me. Once again technically things fit within expectations for the genre but there is nothing special really about it. On top of that, I could not tell if there were actual lyrics or just random pained screams. Either would be fine if done well but unfortunately, it just felt like the experience was taking me nowhere. There was nothing that stood out to me as anything special.
I hate to write negative reviews but I really did not like my time here. All the elements are there for the genre, but none seem to be used in an interesting way. It feels like something you might get if you had an AI listen to a lot of blackened death metal then write its own version sure it is within the genre but there is just nothing interesting to keep my attention. It would be fine to fill out a playlist but personally, I would just give it a pass.
- ‘Mesradh Machae (The Heads of the Men Who Have Been Slaughtered)’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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