To be honest this release seems a bit muddled and confused. There is little direction and it seems the band’s music is going in several directions at once. Let's hope the figure out what they are on about on the next album.
Ion: Immaculada
This is kitchen sink, goth rock. Well, it's not always that heavy, but it's always intense. There are all sorts of elements in here from folk, to art rock, to everything in between. Some of these albums come across as unhinged and listless, but this one comes together nicely. You like Plant and Page’s foray in Middle Eastern music when they recorded their songs in Morocco live with a local band? Then songs like “Temptation” will enthral you. You can almost feel the camp fires and spices burning.
The singer on here is Latvian born Vic Anselmo and she has a wonderful quality to her voice. Wonder if she is in anyway related to Phil “Pantera” Anselmo? It's not surprising that the main man behind this band, formerly of Anti-Matter Duncan Patterson, has seen quite a bit of his music show up in film soundtracks. This music has that epic quality about it that is necessary for such outings.
This is truly haunting stuff that has all the beauty of folk, but the passion of heavy rock. It's quite something to behold and well worth a listen. More importantly, the album is diverse enough to keep it interesting all the way through, unlike so many others like this. Yes, it’s a mellower than most usual fare for this column, but certainly does not lack for any emotion or intensity.
Obsidian: Point of Infinity
This is referred to as progressive death metal. Basically, that means it's progressive metal with some dope growling over the top of it all the time. There are times when it's ok, but a whole album of it gets rather irritating after a while. You generally want the guy “singing” to shut the hell up as he is getting in the way of the music. This is one such album. The “clean” vocals are too buried in the mix so they are hard to hear while the grunting is too far in front.
It's just dull as dishwater most of the time. Well either dull or irritating as hell depending on your point of view. This genre is very hard to get right and this lot are missing the mark as far as I can tell. I just don’t see the point of it all. There is little variation in the tracks. It sounds very samey and there is a clear lack of song-writing as it all blends together in the end.
Article comments