By John Bedard
Well, this album really gets your attention from the start. There is a dark ominous tone that immediately begins to build tension and suspense. This is slowly built up through the whole nearly three minutes of the first track and sets the stage for the rest that follows. Once the stage is set then the album goes into a bit more of what you would expect from a sludge/doom album maybe a bit too much of what is expected. There is nothing that really makes the album stand out; rather it is just a decent example of the genre.
The vocals are pretty far in the background allowing the music to take centre stage. I do think this is a bit of a shame as the vocals have a wonderful tone to them that I feel could have shown through more. Even though they were clean I still could not fully understand the lyrics because they were buried in the mix. I would have liked to hear them cut through a little more, but they never really did. Unfortunately, this made the vocals more of background decoration rather than an equal part of the tracks.
The music, on the other hand, had this wonderful ambient feel woven throughout and a great tone that really stands out. It makes every track feel really connected and, at least musically, well thought out. Even if at times it gets rather repetitive. I know that is pretty common in this style and therefore won’t harp on it too much, but with a ten-minute track repeating itself over and over it does get to be a little much. Especially when you are not playing the music in the background. I do think that this is mitigated by how good the music is but I did find that I enjoyed the shorter tracks with a more ambient influence better than the long ones.
In closing, I do think that there is a lot to like about this album but I don’t think it is one that majorly stands out. Rather, I think it is a good complement to a collection but not a foundation of one. I do think it would be worth it to give it a chance however it is not going to change any minds if you already have an opinion on the genre. While there is nothing that I really dislike there was also nothing that I totally loved either. It was just decent music done decently well but beyond that also somewhat forgettable. Good enough that you should listen and make up your own mind as I don’t have strong feelings either way.
- ‘God’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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