Winter of Life 'Mother Madness' album review
As a metal kid with, let’s say, more old-school thrash leanings, I can’t help but view Goth Metal - where the conventions of the genre often make it seem lacking in any real full-blooded metal assault - as an all too watered down version of the real stuff, and I’ll be the first to admit this viewpoint has greatly influenced my opinion of ‘Mother Madness’, the first full-length album by Italian goth metallers Winter of Life. That aside…
In their bio, the band claim to have left “the goth kind of sound” behind and opened themselves up to influences as far ranging as indie, progressive, jazz and death. If this is their attempt to shed the typical pomposity associated with Goth and present themselves as purveyors of all that’s new and original, then mission not accomplished. This is an average mishmash of ideas that has been done better before by Goth Metal bands not afraid to call themselves Goth Metal bands.
The occasional tangents into jazz-esque territory, instead of the desired unpredictability, merely detract from any potential heaviness and leave me begging the band to return to the generic pseudo-metal they do so well. And in spite of these tokenistic side-trips, there are just too many moments when things get repetitive, creating yet another homogenous album to be filed under ‘non-essential’.
Okay, so there’s no questioning the competence of the release - the album’s eleven tracks, some of which are decent examples of the kind of melodic, pop-infused metal-lite that seems to go down a treat on the Continent, are well-written and performed and there’s no denying the passion contained within, but it just struggles to hold my attention and feels devoid of those memorable moments when an album grabs you by the balls and screams “listen to me!”
I mean, these guys can clearly play their instruments; the drumming is solid, keyboards are used throughout but remain mostly understated, and the guitar work, though sometimes embracing the cheesy stylings utilized by the likes of Mr. Big and Extreme a little too much for my liking, (two bands Winter of Life cite as ‘inspiration’) is still competent. The end result is just too predictable and one-dimensional, falling flat as often as it succeeds. I’ll still give them points for trying though.
Oh yeah, and for a band that’s left behind the “Goth kind of sound” and a reviewer who doesn’t consider herself overtly Goth, that’s some pretty sweet Goth cover art if ever I saw some.