Thy Pale Form...

Despite the current emergence and apparent popularity of "post" black metal bands having a keen fixation on all things to do with Mother Earth, I approach any release by a band with a marked amount of hesitation, personally I don't quite grasp the correlation between 'nature's so pretty' and one of the harshest forms of music in existence (perhaps this is just my close minded foolishness, alas) + the fact I don't see what can be done to top the works of early Ulver, Borknagar and Enslaved; this being said, this release was better than what I envisaged, particularly so for a cover that has a sketch of a bird on the front...


Hailing from South Caroline, U.S, this duo have constructed a fine E.P that clocks in at just under half an hour, the music is undulating, diverse in inspiration and surprisingly refreshing to listen to (perhaps it's just the recent assault of NoEvDia releases I've been re-visiting). Whilst there is nothing new here and it is not carving new territory it is a competent debut that flows (relatively) well over the relatively long track times; this I feel is the albums strongest point, a decent amount of ideas are placed into each song, from beautiful open acoustic parts, to soaring tremolo riffs, blast beats, thrash-y riffs and at times some surprising programmed pieces, although some ideas may leave you questioning the turns the songs take.


In honesty I feel it somewhat pointless to dissect the songs as I think doing so would be to remove from their parts as a whole. Each song seems to work well within its own entity and although the songs can appear to divert and stray off course from their initial outset they seem to come back towards their initial influence in the end.


Weak points of the album in my opinion are initially with the drums; they're programmed, I have no problem with this normally as long at it serves the music, the main issue in this case is that the beats used are incredibly simplistic with little variation. My biggest criticism is at times I struggle with is 'What does this band want to play?', there is an eclectic range of influences here, and it seems to be as much a blessing as much as it is a curse, occasionally the songs seem to take a turn for the realms of thrash, prog and industrial, and whilst with the right hand these elements could be crafted into a great form, a lot of parts leave me bored.


The lyrics are pretty plain in my opinion, nature worship, fantasies about destroying dogmas, current societal constructs and lamenting about your own demise as you watch the leaves fall from a tree, etc. etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum; these kind of lyrics leave me cold and do nothing for me


I find it unlikely that this would ever find its way into my usual playlist as it does little to engage, confront and/or entertain. Whilst it is a commendable effort for their first effort, this machine still needs polishing and greater work needs to be made to present a coherent release. I look forward to their next release, if they can pull their ideas together into something more consistent and maintain stronger themes in the music, whilst still progressing with their more 'Avant-Garde/progressive' ideas they could be one of the stronger acts to come out of the U.S in some time.