The Random Album Club: Week 1
 

http://www.trollheart.com/retinwaav.png
Title: Movements
Artist: Retinwaav
Year: 2014
Genre: Progressive Metal/Djent
Nationality: American
Discography: Two albums
Position in discography: First (debut)

Post all your comments, reviews etc here for this album only.

If someone can tell me the difference between djent and post-rock I'd be in their debt, as this sounded more like the latter. Probably not a great choice to have an almost completely instrumental album to kick us off, but then that's the nature of random.

Anyway, while there's nothing about this I hated, I couldn't honestly say there was anything about it that I loved either. It was ok. Being instrumental makes it hard to pick out favourite tracks, and as with many instrumental albums I just really listened to it in the background. Starts off well, but kind of devolves into genericity fairly quickly. I do like the closer though (is that Waits on it? Hardly) as it's not only the only one with vocals (even if they are spoken not sung) but it has a nice atmospheric feel about it that the rest of the album doesn't seem to have. Word to the wise: it's eight minutes long but cuts out around five. Keep listening though, as it either comes back in or it's a hidden track, but there is more.

Definitely better than a meh, and if I listened to it a few more times I might get more into it. I'm just not that inclined to.

5/10

Somewhat reminds me of the Canvas Solaris album I have, but way less progressive and less metal. Definitely some kind of vaguely progmetal flavored post rock. There isn't immediately any component of the writing here that doesn't seem overwhelmingly familiar to me. They can't be accused of originality, that's for sure. Every pretty guitar lead ringing away in the background, every riff and chord progression... it all feels exceedingly "been there, done that" to me.

I wrote that after only 5 tracks of 13 and if this line is still there when I post, it's because the remaining 8 songs did nothing to better that impression.

I'm always paying a lot of attention to how an album sounds in terms of production, mixing, the exact sounds and effects used for each intrument, etc. Sometimes, when the music gets busy, I find that the cymbal in one speaker sounds strikinly much like just a load of soft, static hissing. I can't say it sounds good to me at all. There's more clarity to how other aspects of the music is represented, but there is a certain cold and harsh quality to it that doesn't serve the generally melodic and soft music well. Some more warmth and a less modern metal style production would have served the album well.

Sometimes those guitars sound incredibly much like that Canvas Solaris album I own. I said that already, but it really hits me again whenever certain sounds come back. I wonder if there's a whole subset of this genre where everyone has guitars that sound exactly like this.

Sometimes tracks bleed into each other without me noticing the shift. At other times, a song will sound like it changes to an entirely different song, but it's just a new segment of the same song. Can't say the compositions seem all that cohesive or memorable. I guess what bothers me the most is how every song has almost the exact same vibe. I guess this is good if you're in a mood where you crave a very specific atmosphere, but it makes for a pretty repetitive album listening experience.

Basically, this album is quite listenable, but it really isn't coming close to setting my world on fire.

Don't think I have any interest in seeing if that other album is any better. The band doesn't really demonstrate much creativity here, so I guess I don't really feel like their band needs to exist. Yikes! That's harsh, but you know what I mean.

They know their way around their instruments, it's just that the material is a bit bland.

5/10

PS: Around 8:30 in track 6, something moderately exciting happened for a moment, but that's not a whole lot to recommend the album by.

Movements - Retinwaav

Not bad.

The guitar tapping kind of reminded me of Michael Hedges, especially on the opener. A fair band can become a good band following the Explosions in the Sky crescendo method. And then notch it up again by keeping it instrumental. Disliked the skit or whatever you want to call it at the end. More ambient and less prog would've served this record better. They're no Rush. Also, keeping the guitar patterns locked in to traditional tonality started to leave me cold. More Tim Hecker, more post-rock crescendo cliches and give me some touches of Gorguts or Flipper or something. Put some garlic in the sauce. Or take that prog thing and bend it. Still, a surprising 3/5 stars.

.

It’s a nice album. The post-rock elements work more favourably for them than their OTT progressive metal moments like Bore. A few moments get too comfortable in Chevelle-esque alt-rock sounds. If Ki was still here he’d be on this album’s nuts like Gary Busey rubbing almonds into his crotch. The album could have been trimmed down by about twenty minutes. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and I would have liked to have seen that because I like looking at clunky new wheels more than looking at ones that are considered perfected, but as they say, it is what it is. And it is a 5/10.

The Random Album Club: "Maaligawe Ma Rejini" by Sujatha Attanayake
 

https://i.scdn.co/image/f76916546d64...39145d747d4543
Title: Malligawe Ma Rejini
Artist: Sujatha Attanayake
Year:
Genre: Dunno
Nationality: Not sure: Sri Lankan?
Discography: Shrug
Position in discography: Double shrug

Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/7mhaT...8N?si=zCX0UcB7

The Random Album Club: "Parasitic Decay" by Placenta Powerfist
 

https://www.metal-archives.com/image...26297.jpg?3916
Title: Parasitic Decay
Artist: Placenta Powerfist
Year: 2014
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Nationality: German
Discography: One album
Position in discography: First (duh!)

Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/album/63Edm9YqeWexGBqshKzCaq
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U59-F5SSXXc

Before listening:
Don't have much experience with Djent, so I suppose this will be somewhat of an introduction to that sub-genre. The avg. rating from RYM isn't especially impressive, but since it's only got 3 ratings, I suppose it's very possible that those 3 people just don't know ****.

After listening:
I found this album moderately enjoyable. Right off the bat they present us with some satisfying use of harmony, especially on "Diapason", but it is indeed accurate to say that throughout the album it does sort of devolve into average, dime-a-dozen prog metal fare, especially on the wannabe epic "Bore", though there are some quite good parts in the mid-section of the track, as well as some very pleasant ambient parts, which also recur elsewhere on the album. On a similar note, I think it's nice that they keep a variety of dynamics in mind (a concept that in a general sense seems to be lost on many a metal band) and juxtapose distorted and clean guitar tones. The latter is used especially successfully on the tracks "Nisus Woes" and "Often the Echoes".

As for the Djent aspect present here; the "mathiness" and use of odd time signatures in their compositions brings some excitement to many of the tracks, though one sometimes gets the impression that it's done to impress the technically minded listener, something I personally resent. At least nobody can say they don't know their craft FWIW.

The fact that all the tracks play attacca (without interruption/silence between tracks) is a nice touch and gives a good sense of continuity and cohesion to the album. As does the re-introduction of certain musical motifs and riffs on different parts of the album. ...or maybe some of their riffs just sound kind of samey... I don't really feel like putting in the effort to verify or debunk that statement.

Lastly, I especially liked the more ambient (or pseudo-post-rock-y) parts of this, especially on the last track (both the faux-ending and the true ending). I actually think this artist could do a pretty decent ambient project if they put their mind to it. But for now I guess they're complacent to reside in the realms of somewhat middle-of-the-road prog metal. Oh well.
In summation: Nothing revolutionary, but I could see myself re-visiting certain parts of this album from time to another. I'll chalk it up to a "like".
6/10

The Random Album Club: "Cloud Walking" by Will of the Mountain
 

http://www.trollheart.com/willof.jpg
Title: Cloud Walking
Artist: Will of the Mountain
Year: 2016
Genre: Progressive Metal/Post Rock
Nationality: Costa Rican
Discography: One, I think
Position in discography: So this would be the debut, then.

Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/3Fq7AOrwd7UO3egShj1xb6
YouTube Link: None