Jazz and Doom metal on one CD
'Don't Touch Dead Animals' starts off with a nice little nursery rhyme. I had the feeling it might get very heavy at the point the rhyme finishes. Sadly this wasn't the case. It felt quite jazzy. This became very apparent after the trumpets and various brass instruments kicked in. Kayo Dot are allegedly verging on Doom metal though this feels much more like something wierd from Jazz Club. Nice? Nah, not really.
After 'Don't Touch Dead Animals' I wondered if I had the right CD? Bloody Panda's 'Fever' certainly changed my mind. My ears were treated to an awfully long sustained guitar note. After the first minute, the heavy, chugging riffs start, although they aren't exactly technical and tend to grate a little but then the song does last for 11 minutes. 3 minutes in and we finally get some rather choral sounding vocals. After 5 minutes, the song becomes a little more moody, with a more orchestral sound and echoing, female vocals with no discernible lyrics. I feel like I'm listening to an inferior version of Delerium - that is, until the guitars kick back in. This is definitely music for sitting back in a very dark, stone room looking at a single lava lamp.
'Circle and Tail' starts off harder than the others, with slightly more discernible lyrics. However, I'm beginning to see a trend. After the beat fails to pick up and the singer wails "Circle Tail" for the umpteenth time, I'm getting a little bored. Where is this going? To bed with a glass of milk by the sounds of it. I can see this appealing a minority of people; it's definitely atmospheric but even that label doesn't save it. The press release referred to Bloody Panda as "Funeral Sludge". I couldn't agree more.