Reviews on April 18th 2003:
Opeth Damnation
(Koch/Music
For Nation; 8 tracks; 43 minutes 21 seconds.)
(File under : An amazing metal band trying to
take the acoustic path…)
Considering the fact that the cover of this album is
near the same as previous effort Deliverance and the short time between
the two release, I considered that as the following or the second part of Deliverance.
The press release told that it is the more melodic side of it… Why not? I like
melodic stuff and enjoyable folk… But see, it didn’t came out the way I expected.
First , take this advice : THIS IS NOT DELIVERANCE… Secondly, even die-hard
fans, get ready to get you mouth crisp… This is not the most intelligent album
ever release. I don’t think that’s me who’s too close-minded but I was thinking
that the band could deliver more impressive stuff. But this is not that bad,
this is just that Opeth is a great band and great band do great things.. The
opening track is the longest one and goes with some pretty decent with slow
groovy rhythmic structures with really nice executed guitar works and some
keyboards atmospheres and clean vocals that reminds me always of the lead
singer from 70’s Quebec’s folk prog rock legends Harmonium or mister Dan
Swanö’s own. The guitar works is really a beautiful moody near-acoustic
playing. But see I was kinda deceived but I didn’t stop shaking my head while
doing air drums, that means I really enjoyed the beats. The guitar works,
mostly on the beautiful Ending Credits can have double thumbs up for
being moody and inspirational. One problem I got is on the vocal works of
mister Mikael Akerfeldt who’s always stunning and here is like too monolithic,
like on all the album you got the impression that he can’t sing harder, like
more long singing. You can’t blame the guy anyway, maybe he don’t want to be
Freddie Mercury, but more pitched clean vocals should have been appreciated. In
the whole package, it reminds me of that awesome Dan Swanö album Moontower without
the death metal, the distortion and the amazing prog keyboards. You that album
made me realise that the transition to acoustic is maybe a really difficult
thing for a death metal band and if some did it great like Amorphis years ago
some don’t do the step with elegance. The effort is there for this Opeth album,
but the searching-for-fucked-up-parts guy in me wasn’t satisfied. Maybe as a
part of a low-priced double album with Deliverance should have been
better for these songs, because buying an album you’re not sure you’ll like
from a band you like is a pretty dull thing. I hope Opeth will attempt the
acoustic exercise in a better way next time because there’s a potential for
making great stuff here…
Music For Nation www.music-for-nation.com
Koch Entertainment www.kochentertainment.com
Necroblaspheme Introducing Pure Violence
(Destructive Records; 8 track; near 40 minutes)
(File under : Brutal Death metal, nothing more...)
Well just by the name of this album I knew I won't be impressed. This is not really my kind of death metal, I mean, I knew exactly when I saw the cover, the title and the name of the band that I won't be impress by France's onw brutal dudes NECROBLASPHEME. Musically they are not that bad, they play a kind of Morbid Angel meet Deicide very brutal death metal with pure disgusting hellspawned vocals I can garantee you that you won't heard any words comming from it. The problem come when you want to go a step forward... So what there's million of great bands playing these kind of death metal that deserve the same attention. sure they should be awesome live, they should be really impressive musician, they should be good friends and so, but all the other death metal bands are like that are possibly exactly the same, having black t-shirt, hands crossed and bad mimics on the cover of their album, evil photoshop-made cover art, etc. Not bad at all, but not good either... But for a reason that I don't know the track number six arose from this album and impress me by the instrumental quality of it, this is pure violence to me, I guess if all the album got the sheer intensity and the speed factor at the maximum like this one (and another bandname and imagery, common) this album should have been far better than that and not just a generic death metal album...
Destructive Records www.destructive-records.com
40 watt womb/PCRV Split
(Self-Release
CDR; 5 track; 78 minutes 13 seconds.)
(File under : Experimental noise that will fuck
your nerves/ harsh noise that will finish the first project destructives
efforts)
Matt Taggart is one of the new cool guy of the harsh
noise/power electronics scene. His works with Pop Culture Rape Victims are
becoming more and more renown as one of the harshest of the genre. This split
(and my first official release from PCRV I can actually hear) combines two side
of his noise personality. The first three tracks of this release are recorded
as one of his new sideproject 40 watt womb which is a 2 person project. Other
persons consisting of a guy named Lee Nelson who plays turntable and pedal.
These tracks consist of mostly always harsh electronics with turntable
manipulation. For those thinking of like happy hip-hop scratch stuff, forget
about that, the instrument is turntable and the execution is very diverse, it
goes from fast playing, scratch, diamond manipulation, etc. It reminds me of
Quebec’s artist Martin Tétreault’s works going really bad. I got the impression
being simultaneously fucked up at the top of a mountain you know when a copter
films around you and in a cartoon factory with dense industrial works. As
always PCRV do pretty intense power electronics noise with so much high pitched
parts that I always got to put the volume down sometime because they were too
much harsh for me, anyway the sound is pretty decent and you got these
electronics stuff that only PCRV can provide, anyway I just heard these kind of
fucked up running squeals in PCRV. The songs are very long and will sure need
intimate hearings and effort to enjoy, but trust me all this release is
awesome. The artwork of this release is really minimal which consist of a transparent
plastic pocket with small stickers on both sides, one who’s representing PCRV
which is a buffalo and the other one is a childbirth scene. Well, all noise fan
should check out release from both bands and this one I guess is a good start.
So take drugs and listen to this stuff kids…
PCRV http://pcrv.harshnoise.com/