Tears of Mankind
Without Ray of Hope
5.5
Tears of Mankind is a Russian melodic gothic/doom band that boasts the balls to cover a song found on a video game soundtrack. Unfortunately, those balls don't stay quite as firm throughout the entirety of the band's grammatically questionable debut album, Without Ray of Hope.
Not to play the part of the chump critic, but I don't hear a lot here that I couldn't find somewhere else, and this problem plagues at least 90% of all bands, metal or not. Be original or at least imitate at the highest level, because you have to know that you're competing with an army of millions. It's not that Phil, the man behind the band for whom I write this review, is incompetent as a musician. The atmosphere can be thoroughly trippy and depressing. The riffs sometimes meander into entrancing territory. However, as a whole, nothing quite grabs me the same way that a Warning (the mesmerizing vocals) or Candlemass (the impossibly heavy guitar sound) would. Obviously, these bands play entirely different music than the style heard here, but their respective members understand that they need a pull, something tangible for listeners to grasp or get lost in.
Glimmers of hope exist in the folk charm of "The River" and the markedly progressive "Deep Inside the Silence," which, once it hits its stride, truly shows the band's instrumental prowess. Tears of Mankind is fully capable of producing some stellar passages, but its songwriting as a whole needs some work. It's also a matter of more carefully selecting riffs that sustain interest. There's enough diversity to make the Rainbow Coalition jealous, but without the songwriting to tie it together getting through the entire album becomes a chore.
