When There's No Room In Hell
Self Titled
6.5
Distortion. Everything, chuck full of it. Guitars, vocals, drums. Bad recording. But it kind of works in this group's favor, I think, and maybe that's the point. It resembles more than anything the breakydowny parts from Dillinger Escape Plan, but without the frantic technical prowess. Or, really the personal involvement on the listener‘s part. It's not bad, really, but it doesn't make me lose myself the way a really great band does.
The songs are slow, but they are played quickly, if that makes any sense. And sometimes they get under my apathy with a tricky time signature or an unexpected switchover. It's got just a hint of Melvins in this respect. Combined with the obvious love of DEP, there is something here to make you wish they had gone for a little less repetition in their songwriting and a little more quality in their recording. Unfortunately a few accented guitar squeals in between simple muted chord stomps over and over gets old.
This seems to be a talented bunch of yobs, but this much distortion can create the illusion of technical competence. That's not a huge problem in my book. I love this shit for the ugly as well as the inspiring, after all. The singer is a shouter/screamer who never really lets up. The distorted vocals give his screams a little added anguish, but at this point in the game we know it's the distortion and not really the man. Anselmo and Blithe kind of already rode that horse into the ground. As far as production, I think I have adequately expressed my amusement at the totality of the overdrive. I am glad this is just four songs. After while I would lose interest as it all started blending in to one big fuzzy heap.
Bottom line, if this is a demo then I say the group has some potential. If it's a greatest hits I say they didn't. It's a demo though, so I am going with choice "A". Get off Dillinger's dicks and explore a little more and you could be onto something. Work more texture into your sound and your songwriting, and tone down the saturation a bit, at least now and then. For the metalheads of this site, hit their label's website and grab a listen if any of the shit I wrote interests you. It's worth that much, I reckon.
