The Black Eyed Peas - The Time (The Dirty Bit)

(19 Feb 2011)

For this song alone, there should be a -3.5 rating. I wonder if the members of BEP suffered psychological trauma after having released this song, 'cause if they didn't, they very well should. Anyway, "The Time (Dirty Bit)" consists of two parts repeated over and over and joined by literally nothing. You start at one part, then there's what I guess is a crescendo, then you hear Will.i.am say "Dirty Bit", which is somehow supposed to connect the song so far with the next part, which is, by the way, something completely different in every single way. The lyrics are nothing to talk about either: just your predictable shit about partying until you need to be hospitalized for having had way too much of a good time. As for the music itself, it's irritating beyond belief on every level. Be it the excessive use of autotune, be it the mosquito impressionist riff during the verses, be it the awfully cheap-sounding everything else.

What's scary though is that I've heard talk of this being the best song on The Beginning, so I'm terrified of hearing the rest of it. As for the song itself, well, it makes the songs I've heard from The E.N.D. sound like pure genius in comparison, and I thought those were impossibly bad.

Scarab - Blinding The Masses

(16 Feb 2011)

I was bored one day, which made me go check out songs on Youtube. I found some interesting stuff, such as Serdce, as well as some stuff that seemed interesting until I listened to it, such as Traumatic Voyage. Scarab, on the other hand, sounded like neither. My first reaction was "Nile clone... meh.", and my next reaction was "Worse than a Nile clone. Egypt, thou hath let me down." In other words, I was quick to dismiss some incredibly tasteful and well-executed Death Metal. Maybe not particularly amazing in any way, but very enjoyable and with a nice dose of character.

First of all, this is a perfect work of Death Metal production: everything is perfectly clear yet has just the right amount of rawness to it. If that weren't enough the album has one of the best guitar tones I've ever heard. It's so fucking dirty that you can't help but imagine wet sand. Then, there is the vocalist, who has one really unique vocal style, which can be best described by the word "monstrous". Throughout the well-written songs, you hear this guy growl in ways that shouldn't be possible for a human being. No, seriously. Again, like I said, these guys have taste when writing the songs. No unnecessary exuberance, everything is in its place.

And then, you listen to the album again, and notice that it is really lacking in terms of variety, and that the riffing and overall playing is a slab of blandness with some "Egyptian" melodies thrown in for good measure, and that's precisely where Nile are better than Scarab: Nile actually makes Egyptian Death Metal, while Scarab makes Death Metal by Egyptians. Don't get the wrong impression, though, this is no "poor man's Nile". Scarab have definitely got their own character, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Standout tracks:

Valley Of The Sandwalkers
Leaders of Agony
Eye of Sanity

Y. Bhekhirst - Hot In The Airport

(15 Feb 2011)

The Shaggs are overrated! There, I've said it. So what that they pioneered in the "music done by people who know nothing about music" genre? They're not particularly good at it. Why do they get such acclaim? I just don't understand it. Their music is just boring and irritating! I guess people may argue that it has this sort of unique character. Well, for those people, I have one simple answer: Y. Bhekhirst.

This guy can't particularly sing, can't particularly play, fanatically supports the notion that time is an illusion, and wouldn't be able to write a meaningful lyric if his life depended on it, yet the enthusiasm is there, and it is there full force. It's the lack of any attention to detail whatsoever that makes this album speak for itself. The amateurish, naive, careless music, coupled with a very clear production brings some really weird results, and makes Hot In The Airport a hilarious listen. But what truly makes this release far superior to Philosophy of the World is that fact that it is fucking catchy as the flu. You will have the songs stuck in your head for days!

If you have or haven't ever played the flash game QWOP, go play it while listening to this album, because they complement each other beautifully. I wish, though, that there were more variety, because eventually listening to the same hilarious things becomes extremely tiring.

Standout tracks:

Over All
I Run My Car
Rain in Summer
I Will Sing

Process Of Guilt - The Circle

(14 Feb 2011)

For some time, Nine Inch Nails were known to follow up each and every release they would make with a/a bunch of remix albums. My definite favourite among these has to be the criminally underrated Things Falling Apart. It might not seem like anything special at first, just your usual superlong remixes of tracks from The Fragile, just like every other remix album NIN ever made, but that one was different: it showed a completely different side of NIN. One of vastness and glacial perseverance. Although I have never heard the release the one I'm reviewing is based on, and I have only casually listened to Renounce so far, I believe it's safe to say that this is showing a different side of Process Of Guilt. One of beauty.

As you turn The Circle on, you are immediately engulfed in an oppressive soundscape that doesn't take long to mold the location you are in. Wherever you may be as you listen to this, it's dark, and it's damp. As the crushing melody progresses, you get a feeling of your surroundings, and emotions start to flow: a feeling of space, of hugeness, light, hope, melancholy. The same formula repeats on the second track, only more triumphant, and to great effect.

You are then thrown into an otherworldly, gigantic place. The triumph of the second track still resonating in the third, and then consumes itself for the two next tracks, the melody presented on erosion becoming progressively more of a fading image of its former self, until the space you were in is finally destroyed, ending the circle.

Every single time you listen to this, you give more meaning to each part, and what you are left with is a fantastic achievement in experimentation. Sadly, I wouldn't go as far as to rate it higher than 4, because, despite how well-constructed it is, in terms of concept and progression, it does fail on some details. The repetitiveness is forgivable, but the aspect that ruins this release is its length. It's only a fucking half hour of brilliance! The soundscapes were brilliant, the atmosphere was brilliant, the concept and idea of having one song and letting it follow its own free path without being pretentious is remarkable and brilliant, but it's not enough! There needed to be at least a tiny bit more variety, there needed to be more time to let the sound dominate the room.

The Circle is at the same time a huge achievement and an even huger disappointment, and is among the most depressive albums that I've ever listened to, but you have to work that depression out, and that is brilliant in itself. It creates great expectations, and then goes on to purposefully not meet any of them, and absolutely destroys everything it had spent the first half to create in the process. It creates a majestic vastness up until the end of the third track, and then just lets it extinguish itself. The last track is absolute destruction. It screams and clatters and demands your attention. It's like listening to the universe shatter and melt. It is powerful, dominant, yet manages to still be weak and fragile. It's like The Circle knows it could have been so much more, but isn't. The CD goes out with a whimper. A VERY LOUD whimper.

Standout tracks:

The Circle (Erosion Part II)
The Circle (Erosion Part III)
The Circle (Erosion Part VI)

Liturgy - Renihilation

(12 Feb 2011)

There exists at least one video on Youtube of the sound of a pulsar. It's a sort of clacking sound that occupies the entire spectrum, and with an unevenness in the loudness that it sounds almost like a living creature. This album sounds quite similar to that.

The album starts with a lot of voices being layered together, starting off minuscule, and but becoming huge before the end of the first untitled track. What follows is an endless onslaught of speed and hugeness only made slightly smaller during the three other untitled tracks. It's not exactly music in the usual sense of the word. There are elements of music thrown in, but it is more of a sound, a feeling, than an album. Liturgy's debut pulsates, it breathes, and the actual details of what is being played are like a personality, an emotion. Everything is part of a whole, and creates a very unique atmosphere. The constant use of different harmonies and extreme speed has a trance-like effect. You will find it very difficult to remeber any part of the album after listening to it, but you will remember that you enjoyed it.

The only problem I have with this album, and the reason why it isn't perfect is that it's incredibly easy to lose your attention and see yourself listening to pure noise, which ends up quite boring. But when you manage to focus, what you find is the extent of Liturgy's achievement. Renihilation goes beyond music. There is melody here, there is rhythm, but they don't actually make the album any more musical. Instead, this album connects with you and takes you to a higher plane. Everything feels like it's in its place. The album has a personality and sticks to it throughout. And, in the process, Liturgy reinvent a genre and, just like Worlds Beyond The Veil, show a new way of looking at music. A great achievement.

Standout tracks:

Pagan Dawn
Ecstatic Rite
Untitled (track 9)
Behind The Void

Crushing Sun - TAO

(06 Feb 2011)

I was reading an article yesterday about Death Metal, written by someone with no measurable knowledge of Death Metal. You had all the usual and predictable goofs as the style was being described, but then something hit me as downright rude and offensive to DMers everywhere: it was written that the lyrics of DM songs referenced blood, gore, murder, animal sacrifice, and are often dark and off-putting, going on to cite Obituary's “Infection” to prove it.

I really hate it when people try to make the genre sound one-dimensional. Obviously, there's an infinite amount of bands who will stick to “urr-hurr-hurr... Gore... Me like”, but then there's also a lot, and probably more, bands that will talk about much more interesting and unusual topics. And, judging by the cover, I was expecting Crushing Sun's TAO's lyrics to be of the latter variety, meaning that I was quite disappointed when I opened the booklet to find out that the broken-up English was used on such meaningful topics as “fucking”, “having sexual intercourse” and “having coitus”.

I wouldn't have cared so much if this album weren't so damn good in the musical department. Simplistic, groovy, yet very memorable Death Metal with a really restrictive and crushing atmosphere. It starts on a relatively high note with “Rain”, but then proceeds to be incredibly forgettable for two songs, and then proceeds to be genius for the next eight. The approach here is quite different in comparison to most DM bands in the way that instead of hitting everything straight at you without any sort of warning or anything, the result being like having a house made of Lego thrown at your face, these guys let the album progress, whilst inserting new details into each song, and the result is extremely effective.

Restraint, we've missed you.

Standout tracks:

Rain
Jane's Trail
12379 Seconds
Love
Grey Scent

The9thCell - Point Blank Range (ACT. III

(05 Feb 2011)

I have no idea if The9thCell is a real band or just one person, but, judging by the facelessness of the instrumentation, I'd assume that it's a single guy. Now, I'm not saying that music composed and recorded by one person is necessarily bad, becuase it isn't. There is a new Mithras demo song which was recorded solely by Leon Macey and it's absolutely awesome. In fact, one-member bands can be much better than the work of a whole band. On the other hand, they can also be much worse than any band in existence, if the musician just doesn't care enough. This project, on the other hand, seems to show enough dedication to have been great, but the dedication is entirely wasted on the superficial.

As you enter The9thCell's website, you are greeted with a comparison of George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler. Now, I don't like either very much, but, damn... that's low. In one move, this project has reduced its potential audience to angsty impressionable teens, and managed to tell everyone that the founder of the band/whatever is a SOAD wannabe, and this is only the site's opening page. Nevertheless. I ploughed on. I downloaded this album and started listening to it.

And here is where my previous comment about dedication starts making sense. You see, the songs are incredibly layered and the production is very crisp, with just a hint of a human element so that it doesn't sound completely sterile. There is always something happening in the layers. There's always either some random guitar noises under the riffs, or 5965553742,6 backing vocals at any moment, or some effect, and they all fit together. But they are fitted onto the most directionless and unnecessary music imaginable. It does manage to be at the same time generic and hard to label. Imagine Korn doing 9-minute-long songs that are slapped together at random without any sort of movement, with a load of NIN thrown into the mix for good measure and backed by 50 million Jonathan Davis clones who won't do any of the things that make Jonathan Davis unique and you have The9thCell. Any sort of riffs or interesting details or fucking structure are completely lost in the general muck.

Nevertheless, despite all the disappointments, the first half of All.Merry.Cah actually shows some potential. I would have given that about 2.5-3.5. What really ruins the album is its second half. After the first 5 minutes of "A Match Forged In Heaven And Perfected In Hell", the whole thing goes to shit. All teh songs beyond this point are more like a mix of random chunks of sound rather than anything else. Now, I understand this is supposedly done to conclude a 3 part trilogy (?), but it renders the whole thing unlistenable.

The real problem here is that, well, yes, I could just say that this album is an absolute peace of crap and go on with my life, but, underneath all that is terrible about release, there is some really good music. This album has some really beautiful arrangements and creates a real feeling of massiveness, and that deserves credit. The songs may be terrible, but the sounds within them are inspiring.

Standout tracks:

Broke New World (Parts I and II)
Singularity Feeder