I cringe when people talk of “the good old days”. They appear to believe in this mythical time when everything was simple and everything made sense and the world was a sunny, happy place, and that it corresponds exactly to the first two decades or so of their lives. And, from what I gather, it was actually better in every single way than whatever faggy bullshit we have these days, apparently. I'm glad there was a time in these people's lives when they were too naïve to know that stuff was kind of fucked up, but it doesn't mean that trying to return to that time is a very good idea. Everything evolves, and in evolution the only way is forward, because otherwise we're talking about regression. (And this is the moment I say what has probably become my catchphrase by now:) And that applies to music as well.
Take, for example, Death Metal. There was this time in the early nineties when Death Metal seemed to have reached its pinnacle. The genre had morphed into something that was at the same time very accessible and very mature, whilst not leaving behind its roots as being a more silly version of Thrash Metal. But by 1996 or so it seemed to have transformed into something different entirely, and, with time, the focus turned more to creating challenging compositions, and the elements of the genre were used for completely different purposes. There is still the occasional release that goes back to the olden days, but generally that will only work in favor when some kind of modern reinvention is applied. That is what Element have done with The Energy. Here they pick up the spacey, Prog-tinged Death Metal of Cynic and the like, and fuses that with the more modern aesthetics of acts such as... uh... Children of Bodom?
Well, admittedly, Element have improved upon most of the aspects that needed improving upon on Aeons Past: they got a far better production job this time around, much better vocals and they have improved the fuck out of the interludes. I'm not kidding, if it weren't for the awful sounding programmed drums, this album would have been up there with Bring Me the Horizon's 2010 album (no, I'm not writing that stupid name) in terms of sound. Oh, yeah. The drums are programmed now, because the album was recorded entirely by one person. And that isn't the only thing that has changed about Element. This time around, instead of making rather generic but good Technical Death Metal, this one man band is playing a kind of original but bad Prog tinged mixture of Death Metal and Mall Metal. Now, I'm not saying this is a bad release because the style changed. I'm saying it is bad because it is boring.
There are many ways, all varying in difficulty, to attract one's attention to music. One can opt for providing an interesting yet difficult listen, while another can go with engaging dynamics, while a third can choose really memorable parts of songs, and a fourth can simply provide very interesting song structures. While the best is to try and create a balance between all of the above, Element here chooses to go for most of the album length with none of those. In short, The Energy lacks energy. Also, I really disliked the way the more progressive influences were employed. They were used like duct tape. The songs will be going in one direction and then they'll just stop and try to go in a completely different one for no apparent reason, sometimes more than once per song.
And what's worse, you actually get a preview of how great the album could have been within the same album! “A Gesture From November” is fantastic and “Everchanging” is not much worse. It just makes me wonder what the hell went wrong with everything else. These tracks are like what Element wanted to do with the album done right. Yes, they are still kind of generic, but I can't deny that they are epic, that they are atmospheric, that they are progressive and that they make sense. Why couldn't the whole album be like that? Why couldn't this be another early nineties classic from the noughties?
Standout tracks:
A Gesture From November
Everchanging
Dreaming Forever
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