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Phenomenally boring - 32%
There's few varieties of metalcore I find more boring than this sort: the somewhat technical, atonal, aggressive style that takes a great deal of influence from post-hardcore. In an attempt to seem progressive and mature, Bloodjinn has excised nearly all interesting or enjoyable melody from this release, leaving the listener with only an overly rhythmic, almost painfully boring CD which can't be recommended to anyone.
This has a superficial resemblance to Camilla Rhodes, except that that band can craft interesting and complete songs. Bloodjinn relies of a great deal of repetition to make their ideas known: they borrow liberally from the A Life Once Lost school of Meshuggah-style atonal, chugging rhythms, but without any of the dynamics that make those bands relatively interesting. The riffs generally alternate between chug riffs and palm muted open string/high chord assemblies which you've heard a thousand times before and never manage to craft anything worth listening to. Vocals are a strained, vaguely emoish scream which remain uncompelling despite the intensity with which they're performed.
The production is rather dry and lifeless, but I can't say it doesn't fit the music; the general aesthetic and title might have indicated that this would be a little bit different from the average, but Bloodjinn proudly takes the reins of boring metalcore from standards like Unearth and adds more spastic technicality (which isn't even that impressive in its own right), fewer riffs, and a lot of repetition. Of course there's the occasional attempt at creativity (which is just like every other generic metalcore attempt at creativity); 'Let Us Know Within 30 Days' is the stock clean guitar interlude track plunked down in the middle of the album without subtlety or purpose, and the rest of the music follows suit: aimless, undynamic, and almost oppressively plain.
This is an absolutely unnecessary album for anyone to get, even die-hard metalcore fans. I haven't felt this bored with metalcore since the last (and only) Maroon album I heard. This is acutely uninteresting, and perhaps the most screamy and intense cure for insomnia I've seen yet.
