Device - Device Review

Device - Device [Exactly-the-same-as-Disturbed 'Industrial']

As to why David Draiman would put Disturbed on hiatus to create a band and make an album that sounds exactly like Disturbed simply confuses me.

Right off the bat; the sound is so slow and chugging it's infuriating. David Draiman tries to do soulful melodic singing, but it's dry and flat. Sadly, he screams less on this album, not a surprise since he has stopped screaming since Disturbed's The Sickness.  The guitar sound is weak from Geno Lenardo, its boring and uninpsired as hell.

There are special guests on record, but most sound forced and failed. Serj Tankian, one of my favourite childhood singers, sounds COMPLETELY out of place on 'Out Of Line' and the bass from Terry Butler doesn't do anything to save the song. The only time Serj Tankian sounds interesting is when he does background vocals towards the end of the song (and on a side-note, Serj you still sound good). Lzzy Hale guests on the Ozzy Osbourne cover 'Close My Eyes' and ironically enough, Draiman sounds better than her. Tom Morello's guitar solo on 'Opinion' is all but a few seconds long but worth the entire song itself. Weirdly enough, the best vocal contributions here were Glen Hughes (though like Serj, the contrast between his high voice and the music didn't really work out) and more surprisingly, M. Shadows on 'Haze'. His baritone goes perfectly hand in hand with the low pitched guitar and he provides one of the few interesting moments on this album.

Other than that? None of the songs are actually memorable. David Draiman's song-writing is unbelievably blunt and pathetic, with almost every chorus having the same uplifting tune as that from Disturbed's older song 'Stricken'. I have always thought of him as a monotonous singer (because, past his gorgeous tone, his vocal range is a joke) and this album does nothing to change my opinion. Talk about a major flop. Also, David Draiman assumes that whatever he does on this album is industrial.




This is industrial. Device is not. To quote Metalsucks.net:




Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Blut Aus Nord - 777 - Cosmosophy Review

Blut Aus Nord - 777 - Cosmosophy [Avant-garde Black Metal]








When Blut Aus Nord announced a trilogy of albums to be released within six months of each other last year, a lot of people wondered if the quality of music would be compromised for quantity. Devin Townsend and Ihsahn have put forth stale albums this year that could have been more polished on their own timing. So when the first two installments were released in the 777 trilogy, namely 777 - Sect(s) and 777 - Desanctification, a lot of people praised the freshness of the musical directions whilst people like me were rather alienated by the seemingly unmusical style of the band. Industrial computer beats, black metal riffs that drone in and out, mechanical but steady drums, and mostly indistinguishable vocals plagued the two albums and I didn't look through them again till late this year when the apparent message of the album sinked in - this is after all a concept about nightmare dreamscapes and fearful sounds, what else would it do but make you feel discomfort? With more spins, Sect(s) and Desanctification soon proved to be the more unorthodox and effective musical releases from this French metallers.


Followed by the news this year that the third installment would be delayed from February 2012 to September, simply because band leader Vindsval didn't find the product powerful enough then. Marketting plot or not, I listened to this record six months after it was due.


And then one understands the meaning of Vindsval's words when he announced the delay.


Immediately, things become apparent, the production is spacey and riffs float about within the first few seconds of Epitome XIV, before the first song starts proper with... vocals that have been processed by the vocoder while remaining as unintelligible as the previous records. While the previous records sounded evil and ominous, this record sounds bittersweet, emotional and triumphant, all at once.


As it progresses, Cosmosophy begins to unveil itself as something far beyond black metal at all, with an almost industrial backdrop and rapped out verse starting Epitome XV, a receipe that would spell cheesy disaster in the hands of another musician. But it is the final two epics, Epitome XVII and Epitome XVIII, with its post-apocalyptic compositions that even manage to find pieces of melodies from the previous two albums weaving in and out to fully utilise the fact that this is really a trilogy and not a bunch of albums with a similar theme. It is minimalistic, without the acrobatics of the past two polyrhythmic albums, and that is not to say 777 - Cosmosophy is replete of complexity.


As you listen, images of your own life would definitely surface as you let the music play. It was probably the inspiration for the 777 series when it was announced last year, but music this inspired, this paradoxical and this evocative is what differenciates the people who play music and the people who create music. If Tool, Pig Destroyer or Converge fail to make a more stunning album in the final quarter of the year, than we already have the album of the year. This is not even metal, this is music.


★★★★★ Excellent - Undisputed classic for critical listening