Alright, finishing off this batch.
Album: The Ape of Naples
Artist: Coil
Genre: Experimental
Suggested by: grindy
Familiarity: Absolutely none.
1. Fire of the Mind - Much synthesized. Very atmosphere. Wow. This is like nothing I've ever heard before. It's beautiful.
2. The Last Amethyst Deceiver - A lot of synth as well, but now I've basically heard something like this already. Sounds like some of the music you hear on How It's Made. About halfway through, and it's already feeling a bit redundant. He keeps repeating the same lyric over and over. I assume this will be a recurring theme. "Pay your respects to the vultures for they are our future." Yeah, whatever. It's a really interesting and textured sound, but the same basic thing for ten minutes absolutely sucks. Makes me recall a certain British comedy troupe.
3. Tattooed Man - Sounding European this time. A sluggish pace isn't necessarily a detractor, but it could be. This song without the vocals is extremely uninteresting. That really shouldn't be the case. The decision to include a xylophone and the sousaphone-sounding instrument makes the music sound very childish and unimportant too. However, as the song goes on, and adds more layers on, it takes on a more mature sheen. The whole thing is very cold and icy. I'm shivering over here. I'm into it. This one catches on after a while. Cool.
4. Triple Sun - Now this is freaky. This is what I was expecting when I first started up the album. It's super cold. And thankfully it doesn't go on for long enough to get boring. The synth trumpets are a nice addition. Great.
5. It's In My Blood - Creepy. Getting industrial I see. Oh, my. The screaming. Sounds like Rob Zombie's music. Sounds like Roger Waters' vocals (lol). Awesome. As long as this song was going for bone-chilling, it hits the nail on the head. The hard-hitting beats just keep getting harder. And the violins just keep getting more random.
6. I Don't Get It - Yup. We have hit the noise section of the album. Pink Floyd used to have these. Weren't quite as creepy as this, though. Very foreign-sounding. Futuristic at the same time. Though I was only 2 minutes in when I started getting bored. Is the song a self-fulfilling prophecy? Because I really don't get it. I mean, I get it, but I just don't get why people want so much of it. The guy going "Hello?" at the end was pretty satisfying though. Then it comes to the loud conclusion. I always enjoy the end of a song more than the beginning it seems. Anyways, this song has a rating of, "Thanks... but no thanks."
7. Heaven's Blade - Why and how was this song made? It's just a bunch of BS. A bunch of distressing music over Balance's psycho-babble. I mean, it's interesting, sure, but it's not fun. It's not really even that scary for me. I have a hard time finding music scary. "Just cut yourself." Thanks... but no thanks. See, it's being repetitive, so I'll be repetitive too.
8. Cold Cell - A depressingly simple drum line carries Balance's strange vocalizations on its shoulders. Besides a couple synth tracks here and there, that's all this song is. Greeaaatttt. We're on a downward spiral, it seems (get it).
9. Teenage Lightning 2005 - Hey, look. It's the same crap! What's the same crap doing here? Oh, it's just badly produced. Oh, okay. It's just so, whatever. This is the coldest stuff I've ever heard. There's no emotion to it. There's nothing. Nothing. *sigh* This one was actually looking pretty promising at the beginning. Alright, so let's take stock. Tube Drums? Check. Xylophone? Check. WAY too much synth? Check. Seemingly random lyrics? Check. Sounds like fun. This one's a bit better than the last one. But probably only because I've had more time to listen to it. P.S. Why is there laughing at the end? Because it sounds like a desperate attempt to grab my attention.
10. Amber Rain - After doing a bit of reading, I've discovered this song was a bit of a remix album. Produced almost exclusively by Peter Christopherson (a very confusing last name). I guess that explains why this album seems to have a one-track mind. Because it only has one mind. Foreign sounding a bit. It's all the same now. None of this stuff is catchy in the slightest. It's so cold that it's impossible to get into. I really hope you don't actually like this whole album, grindy. This song is a clusterf*** of beeping noises. There you have it.
11. Going Up - Are we? Please say we are. It seems like we may be. Well, the industrial influences are making me excited. And the instrumentation isn't impossibly dull anymore. We're adding more instruments. Stuff's happening. I like it. There's emotion. It's not as cold anymore. Feels like slowly swimming towards the surface. Then suddenly it stops. Wat. Alright, it's still got me in its clutches. Will it hold on? The vocals are totally incoherent, which means I can't really judge the lyrics. But the melody is good. It's gotta be the strings that add the depth. Beautiful. All it needs now is drums and a final march. Probably to doom and destruction, but at least it's something. It's not doing anything, is it. Despite this song saying it's going up, it's not quite fitting the bill. Seems like it's comfortable staying right here. Anyways, it fits with the rest of the album. Underwhelming.
And I think that's a perfect way to describe it. It's an underwhelming album, produced by a failing band. Balance died, and based on this album, it sounds like he have been the only thing holding it together. It's frustrating, because it feels like this band has a lot of promise, but's it wasted on bad songwriting. There are definitely some really good moments, but they're starkly contrasted by a lot of boring and rambly songs. It stinks. But that's the way things are. You wanted it, you got it.
OVERALL RATING: 4/10
I feel like there's some other guy with the last name Balance, who was somehow connected to post-punk. Any thoughts on who it could be?