9

Heavy builder

When I got this CD I thought it was an ep as there are only five songs on it, what I didn't realise obviously was they are long songs, duh. Now usually when I do a review I put the good stuff first assuming there is any but this time I'm going to start off with my biggest problem with this album, the production.

The singer is way too low in the mix and the guitars are a mess, there's very little top end to speak of leaving it muddy and incoherent in places, with better production this could have been great but as it stands it needs remixing.

Sounds like I don't like it doesn't it? Well the funny thing is I do like it, it is unremittingly heavy and the long songs allow it to build and build, with the singer so low I have no idea what he's singing about but who cares when the songs create a tidal wave of feeling like this, you can lie back with your headphones on and drift off.

In a way it reminds me of early Genesis, Yes and Floyd, not for the songs themselves but for the emotional response they create. It's music you can 'get into' shut your eyes and groove along.

Please can someone remix this and turn it into the massive piece of music that is struggling to surface, this album is being held back from achieving it's potential and a great shame it is as you can hear it underneath, it's like listening to a fantastic gig through a window, you know there's greatness going on but you can't help feeling you're missing some of it. I'd have given it another couple of marks but for this.

Having said all that, even if you discount the production you have to be of a certain mind set to listen to this all the way through in one go, you need to be patient, this isn't an instant fix album like Rammstein or something, this is more like the drawn out slow building efforts of Tool. The payoff though when it arrives is that much bigger and better earned than the instant gratification of less structured tracks.

Can I recommend this? Yes I can if you're prepared for the iffy production and the long slide into oblivion that this album offers through it's heavy stoner metal that rolls you under and crushes you to the bottom of a lake of blackness. When it ends and you open your eyes you'll be literally displaced for a second or two.