A brief crack of light --- Therapy? --- 2012 (Blast Records)
One of the unsung survivors of the Irish rock scene, Therapy? have forged ahead in the face of decreasing media interest but decent record sales, to produce thirteen albums, of which this is their latest. They're a band I haven't heard before, so this is the first time I'll be listening to, never mind, reviewing, one of their albums. Let's see whether it's a good or bad experience.
Hailing from County Antrim, the band has been going since 1989, and although they started life as a trio, one of the founder members, drummer Fyfe Ewing, left in 1996 and was replaced by Graham Hopkins, with cellist Martin McCarrick added to round the band out to a quartet. They play mostly post-rock and metal, and have gained a pretty huge following over the twenty-three years now that they've been in existence.
The album opens with a heavy blast of guitar and drums as “Living in the shadow of a terrible thing” rocks its way out, a track that was also the first single released from the album. There is Metallica style bass and almost punk vocals courtesy of Andy Cairns, who also plays the guitar with some pretty mighty feedback, and the guitar work gets harder and faster for “Plague bell”. More punk-style almost shouted vocals, with a lot of anger (real or simulated I don't know) kind of reminscent at times of the Clash. So far, it's not really my kind of metal though, and whereas the lyric here declares
”I hate every second” I wouldn't go that far, but up to this point there's not a lot I like about this album, or this band.
I really can't see anywhere that a cello is going to fit into this music though, and a cursory glance over Therapy?'s catalogue shows me that the last time Martin McCarrick contributed to an album was 2003's “High anxiety”, so maybe he's no longer with them? Surprisingly, “Marlow” is a lot better, great instrumental, very melodic and with a sort of mixture of Big Country and U2 about the guitar work, then “Before you, with you, after you” comes on strong, with more hard, angry vocals and sharp guitar with pounding drumwork, decent hook in the chorus though. Even uses some vocoder. Yeah.
“The buzzing”, however, is just annoying. Basically just noise with the vocals shouted rather than sung. It does settle down a little with about a minute to go, eventually, but I just don't think that much of it at all. Not crazy about “Get your dead hand off my shoulder” either. Think this is going to be another in the “dislike” pile, of which my review of 2012 albums is so far weighted in their favour. Hard to find a decent new album this year, it would seem. “Ghost trio” has a nice jangly guitar intro at least, one of the two longest tracks on the album at over five minutes, and it's not too bad. The guitar takes on a hypnotic, almost sitar-like quality as the song goes along, and is probably the best (only good) part of the song. I have to say, I don't think much of Andy Cairns' vocals though, even if his guitar work is pretty damn good.
The album is kind of going past in a haze of noise and shouting now. “Why turbulence” has a decent chugging guitar riff but not a lot else, while “Stark raving sane” is at least decent hard rock/metal, then the last, and longest, track surprises totally by slowing everything down and using those vocoders again, and to be fair Cairns' vocal on “Ecclesiastes” is much better: why doesn't he sing like this all the time? The guitar is ominous and dramatic, the drumming slow and measured, and if there was anywhere that McCarrick's cello would have fitted on this album it would have been here, but I don't hear it. There's a certain feeling of Tiamat about this, and it's a decent closer, a very good closer in fact, but it's not enough to save the album.
I thought I would like this, but it's too raw and too undisciplined for my liking. I do like metal --- love it, in fact --- but I like it, like all the music I enjoy, to have structure and meaning, and Therapy? fail to manage this, in my opinion on this album. If there's a brief crack of light here, it's with the final track, but the door snaps shut and I'm left in pretty much total darkness. And I don't like the dark...
TRACKLISTING
1. Living in the shadow of a terrible thing
2. Plague bell
3. Marlow
4. Before you, with you, after you
5. The buzzing
6. Get your dead hand off my shoulder
7. Ghost trio
8. Why turbulence
9. Stark raving sane
10. Ecclesiastes