These two albums were bought without research. While waiting for an order of CDs to arrive, desperate for something to listen to I picked up a few albums in Wagga.
Cryptopsy – The Unspoken King
Never having heard this band before, I was enticed by a review on the cover; “…time signature blasphemy… bouts of unpredictable musical passages…”. These words are quite true, but unfortunately far more literally than I had expected. I’m not sure the use of “musical”is a complement, if only parts are musical, what fills the other 42 minutes of the album? OK, I have found it hard listening to this album, listening to it in the car while travelling, and while working did not reveal anything worth hearing, but now listening to it with a good pair of headphones I’m coming to grips with this album, but I’m still not impressed. It all started when in the opening seconds of the album I heard this:
Blast beat is something I can rarely tolerate. It overpowers any attempt to create melody or harmony, and fatigues the ears, making more than a few songs hard to tolerate. But alas, it remains for much of the album.
The first track holds no merit in my mind, the second has a solid groove in parts, but is totally unsupported, with no depth to make the song memorable. The short guitar solo is one of the few short passages where the listener is granted a reprieve from the wall of blast beat.
The rest of the album is much the same, walls of unmelodious sound, with occasional pauses from the drummer while a guitar plays a short melody. The album has some good rifs, some nice sounds, good material for contrast, but its assembled haphazardly, with no structure, building of ideas. I love bizarre time signature changes, but this album creates nothing from them. They’re there, but they do not convey anything to the listener.
If I had to recommend two tracks from this album, it would be 10, and perhaps 5. They have a fair variety, and at least some flow and structure.
This from track three is also one of the more enjoyable
On the whole I don’t see myself revisiting this album, Its been hard enough to get through to pull out the few bits I do like.
Nevetherym – Rendezvous
This was an interesting album. I had no idea what to expect. It was a 3 track album for $10. Its a self published album (the first) from the Central Coast. With only three tracks I figured there had to be something worthwhile there to warrant publishing a short CD. It must be “Interesting if not good” I said to myself, and the proprietor as I purchased the CD. The 26 minute album had me hooked immediately. Its amateurish, I cringe with every bad decision made in building the album, but there is so much promise that I find myself listening over and over.
Mix and recording wise, the album is a little awkward, over distorted and unclear in parts, but that is to be expected. The technical ability leaves some to be desired, phrasing, dynamics and timing aren’t perfect, but these can, and I’m sure will be worked on.
A violin features in all three songs, and baring the previous comment, sits very well. The vocals are the biggest disappointment. Conceptually they’re fine, but in execution, some vocal training is much needed to keep the voice on pitch.
The guitar rhythm in track one is very top 40 rock/old school Nickelback, which I like. It has a very different feel when layered with the violin. Great contrast between light and heavy sections, and great transitions. Slightly repetitive (a complaint I often have), but at least it helps to build the feel throughout the song by allowing you to become used to one feel before dragging you into another. Fantastic light section. Slight awkwardness in parts of the violin melody, but largely OK, great feel from the guitar, invoking an image of bells in my mind.
Slightly over-enthusiastic leading into the lifts, with the timing slightly off. Some poor melody choices in the violin back in the heavy section. Additionally the violin should NOT play the same riff as the guitars, it weakens the position of the violin to create emotion, and adds nothing to the feel. Some great chords thrown in towards the end to throw the listener off balance, before returning to the driving riff to finish.
Track 2 really shows the cracks in the vocals and the tone of the band, but still remains a solid effort. A shorter piece, less depth, but action packed. Again, terrific contrast, and very aggressive, and super moody. Bass guitar solo is muddy, and again, I’d like to see the violin do its own thing, or nothing at all.
Beautiful entry to track three, few tweaks to the mix would make this perfect, reverb on the pizzicato violin doesn’t sit right. Song is longer than it needs to be, with the main riff repeated. The violin again needs a bigger dose of originality. This song again does not have the depth of the first, but shows more variety, and certainly a lot of promise for their next album.
This album, with all its flaws, is a super original, promising album, I will certainly keep Nevetherym on my radar, and I wait in anticipation for their next release. To hear the full recordings of these songs, see Nevetherym on myspace.