Carpe Mortem

Dušan Jevtovič: Am I Walking Wrong? (2013)


1. You Can't Sing, You Can't Dance- Right up my alley! I gotta admit, I've heard this basic song structure like a million times through my vast stoner fandom but it never ****in gets old, and there were some excellent nuances here. This first
track made it clear to me I made the right choice for which album to review. 10/10

2. Am I Walking Wrong?- Sort of New Yorkish with a southern vibe, if that makes any sense. Made me think of old school gangsters on the edge of town where industry meets desert. The last minute or so had some drum variations that brought it to an awesome close. 10/10

3. Drummer's Dance- Cracked a bit of a smile when I saw the title considering the outro of the last song. This started off just trudgy as ****, but not repetetive, it was in a good way. The title fits it perfectly. Then you get less of the rock and more of a slight jazzy vibe towards the middle, with them drums still dancing the night away, and it ends in a related flourish. 10/10

4. One on One- This was good and all, I totally didn't mind listening to it and would probably be like 'hey who is this band?' if someone was playing it, but not as good as the rest of the songs so far. Got kinda boring for me. 6/10

5. In the Last Moment II- Excellent opening! Kinda foreboding and creepy. The whole song is like that, really atmospheric and jilted. Enjoyable listen. 8/10

6. Embracing Simplicity- Guitar nerds... such a guitar nerd song. Again, title fit the track perfectly. Awesome ****in track, to put it simply. Just expect a showcase of strings, moreso than other songs. 10/10

7. Third Life- I was a sucker for the intro at first... but then I got really sick of it. Do somethin, fool! Finally, fool did something, and it was screechy and weird and oddly kinda enjoyable. 7/10

8. Tra-Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta- I kinda failed to understand the point of this short transition song, wasn't particularly interesting. Meh. 3/10

9. Bluesracho- Holy hell of sexy blues right off the bat! I'm just a total sucker for this kind of thing. Total sucker, never ceases to entertain me. And this was a very bouncy feel good sort of blues with a drumtastic outro. 9/10

10. If You See Me Again- Pretty as **** acoustic atmopheric that has a somber, good memories gone by beauty to it. Excellent, and I mean ****ing excellent, final track for this album. 10/10

Technical Total: 8.3/10

However..... I felt like the flow of this album was very well balanced, and there was a decent amount of effort put forth to keep it together. Slight things that were pleasantly discreet, and a broader lack of cacophony. This easily bumps the album, for me, to a

8.8/10

I checked out the other reviews on this, and I gotta disagree with you guys! I really enjoyed this one, enough that I will recommend it to others highly. Different strokes I guess.

__________________

Anteater

Nobody likes a shitty cup of coffee...but if Starbucks gave you a dud, would you destroy the whole planet in retaliation? That's the moral dilemma given to us by monsieur Townsend in this epic, epic album about one alien and his quest to drink the best cup of coffee in the universe. And as far as solo albums go, its definitely one of the best you'll ever hear from anyone. Vocals, instrumentation, production...everything's done by Devy himself without much help. I'd probably go crazy after four months in a studio trying to painstakingly piece together something even half as cohesive & interesting as Ziltoid The Omniscient, but maybe that's just me.

Sonically, this sucker lies somewhere between Strapping Young Lad and the more strident, symphonic direction that Devin tends to take with his solo material or poppier Project excursions like Addicted! and Epicloud. Fun ride all the way through too: 'By Your Command' takes us through the opening act of the narrative like some sort of marching anthem as the Drumkit From Hell blasts from behind before segueing into some gorgeous harmonies by the mid-point, and that's just the start! Other highlights include the endemically wonderful 'Hyperdrive' with its monster hook, the Floydian 'Color Your World' and the fist-pumping 'Planet Smasher', but even the interludes do their part just fine. There's a lot of narration interspersed throughout the album that makes this sound more like a "musical" than a concept record, but they're integrated so well that as far as rock operas go, you can't help but feel invested in Townsend's B-Movie invasion musical scenery as it flows by. That's normally very difficult to map out on paper, and even harder to implement as a singular vision of some kind...but Devin pulls it off like it's the most natural thing in the world.

I'll finish this little review by saying that honest-to-God GREAT concept records are really hard to come by, prog or metal or otherwise. There's a reason people still talk about Operation: Mindcrime nearly three decades later while others have fallen to the wayside. While every once in awhile a concept album gets absorbed into pop culture due to accompanying visual material rather than the strength of its overall musical vision (like Pink Floyd's The Wall), Ziltoid is undoubtedly a masterpiece of focused, unbridled genius in melodic metal that would succeed even without a movie adaptation. It even comes with a sense of humor!

10/10

__________________
Anteater's 21 Fav Albums Of 2020

Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette