Byproduct
To Create Rather Then Destroy
4
Though I generally tend to champion bands who blend genres in unusual ways, even I can tell when the mating of two genres has yielded a deformed, sickly runt instead of something interesting. Take Byproduct for example. Though To Create Rather Than Destroy certainly features a broader musical palette than the average metal album, it suffers so heavily from its awkward ingredients and choppy execution that its eccentricity is more irritating than anything else.
Okay, imagine if Slipknot ditched all the bullshit extra musicians and started playing burly amelodic metalcore a la How It Ends. The goofy nu-metal whispering/mewling/shouting shit is still there, but now it’s paired with plaintive (and horrid) clean vocals and chest-tapping breakdowns. A little death metal heft in the guitars, a pervasive mid-range roar from bassist/vocalist Jon Milles and some near-blastbeats keep the music from sounding commercial, but only just. Now stick in one directionless ambient interlude for every two metal tracks on the album, just to prolong the experience. Round the whole mess out with an overblown and underwritten epic closer—in this case “The Collapse of the Tangent Universe,” which starts out as a pretty deft and enjoyable post rock number before sampling Hellraiser III for way too long and finally becoming a normal length groove-metal song twelve minutes into the track. Yuck.
Most of you have probably bolted for the exits by now and I can’t blame you a bit. I guess this might appeal to somebody, but personally I found To Create Rather Than Destroy an extremely grating listen. Byproduct do manage a tight and decent-sounding performance here in terms of quality and production, but their attempt to revitalize a tired style with a bunch of incongruous interludes fails almost completely.
