Housemaster
I Paroni De Casa
5.6
I’m having difficulty figuring out exactly what Housemaster are trying to accomplish here on I Paronia De Casa, their first demo. The band’s sound is rooted in thrash, but Housemaster mix so many strange (and often conflicting) elements into their attack that to describe the band as such would be misleading. Vocals alternate between gruff death growls and dramatic clean wails, with the occasional falsetto squeal thrown into the background for good measure. The singing is heavily accented and comes off as amusing more than anything else, particularly the random bursts of gibberish that appear in “The Hero From The Sky” and the end of the title track. Musicianship is solid, especially the guitar solos, but occasionally the band tries to exceed their limitations and the results are noticeably sloppy; see the amateurish attempts at blasting in the aforementioned “The Hero From The Sky” that makes the dude from Striborg seem like Derek Roddy.
Opening number “Evil Eyes” is an enjoyable, straightforward thrash number that leaves you unprepared for some of the bizarre things you’ll hear on the rest of the demo. I enjoyed this song the most simply because it was the only one where the band really seemed to be in their comfort zone. Sure, there are a reasonable number of cool riffs and catchy segments in all the songs, but I was mostly too distracted by the parts of this demo that didn’t work to really appreciate the parts that did. I’m not really sure if the tone of this music is supposed to be that serious or not (the second track is called “Der Governator“), but the fact remains that the band seems intent on doing everything they can to keep themselves from being labeled as merely another thrash band, and this ends up working against them. While a desire to innovate in one’s music is obviously a positive trait, Housemaster do not yet have the skill or ingenuity to pull off their desired combinations, and as a result often sound rather forced and silly. It's like these guys are trying to progress, without having released anything prior to progress from. Let me put it this way: if Housemaster had left the distracting power elements as well as all the other odd-ball traits out of I Paroni De Casa and focused strictly on the thrash, this would have earned at least a four in songwriting from me. At least the production is good, very good for a demo actually.
I’m certainly not permanently condemning Housemaster; this is a young band still trying to find their identity and points of focus and they have plenty of time to do so. This is what demos are for, after all. Once these guys figure out where they want to go with their music and what they want to sound like, they’ll be in good shape. Nothing here that I’d recommend to anybody, but you could do a lot worse than to at least keep on ear out for these guys in the next couple of years. I mean, is it really that much to ask to remember a name like “Housemaster?”
