“Appletree of Discord is sociocritical sum of eleven songs, a melange of metal, electronica, symphonic elements and vintage rock, everything spiced up with right dose of irony.” – WARNING: This product is supported by dangerously low levels of indefinite article.
Industrial music is something I’ve yet to investigate on anything other than a hearing-it-by-accident level, but even with my limited knowledge of the genre I find it hard to believe that people would really listen to something like this without getting bored after one minute of each track – but then that’s the same feeling I get from some artists I know are popular… I’m not really sure why Blaž Erzetiè (or Neversun) decided to send his album to Global Domination though, ‘cause there’s only the slightest hint of a metal influence within this menagerie of angst, make-up and discordant synths. Never mind though, I’ll do my best to review it with unbiased fingers.
The pointless intro (sigh…) contains an Emily Dickinson poem, which is read only slightly louder than the four chords that accompany it. Once we get to the real music, the build up begins to sound promising, with some nicely distorted guitar riffs fading in before suddenly hitting a stunning anti-climax. It’s quiet, it’s relatively slow, and the synth is bad. I suddenly start to feel embarrassed – what if someone hears me listening to this? Fortunately dire opener “Initiation” is soon over… Unfortunately, eight similar tracks follow and I soon find myself listening to some ska instead…
What are the ingredients to an El Soter song? Actually, there are some pretty sweet ingredients – but, as any chef will know, even the finest count for little when all you do is wash them and drop them on the plate with no preparation. Most chefs will also tell you that no meal is improved by the presence of an annoyingly loud and amateurishly programmed drum machine, and in this particular case the rule carries over to music. The sweetness comes in the form of some generally nice ideas in the composition; the angry industrial guitar and some of the infectious synth lines are the high points in the songs, all of which develop well and are free of the trend in this sort of music to get overly repetitive. A shame, then, that I can’t really find anything to enjoy in the overall product. Soon enough (although not really) the pointless outro (sigh…) and some more Emily Dickinson verse is upon me, and then ‘tis the end.
Like I said, I’m no expert on industrial. Perhaps the snail’s pace and the general lack of energy are norms in the genre, but they’re the main reasons, along with the erratic production, that this album feels boring and slightly irritating to me. The only track that really stood out was “Girl in Pink for Example”, which lacks both the scared-of-girls-so-I-cut-myself vocals – a style I’ve never understood – and any pretences at a sensible title. The rest of them don’t invoke any feelings except a vague wish that my Sacred Reich EP had finished ripping onto my computer so I could listen to some thrash.
5 clueless and confused reviewers without enough eyeliner out of 10.
AMP
