Tungkat Blood Wand

Call me ignorant, call me naive, call me stupid, or just plain silly, but when this ep was announced I was excited. I had hoped for something in the vein of Dethrone the Son of God, a mid paced black metal album with a strong sense of rhythm, blasphemy, and all around charm that made it stand out amongst countless other albums. Instead, with Tungkat Blood Wand, the listener is subjected to almost sixteen minutes of growls, minimalist slow drumming, whooshing noises and other pointless sound effects.


I can appreciate abstract music, or music that focuses more on atmosphere rather than riffs, melody, or emotion; but TBW is just useless noise. For about the first five minutes of the first track all you hear is what sounds like feedback and plenty of "whooshing" noises, then from left field we get Paul Ledney's signature rasps along with a simple drum beat , the sound only evolves to encompass more weird effects and a slower drum beat. Whilst flipping the ep over I still had some hope, only to deal with more of the same crap.


The noise portrayed on this ep is simple and mundane. I suppose it was Ledney's goal to get an evil vibe going, but all that's accomplished is me wanting to throw this ep like a frisbee. This is completely boring and uninspired. Give me garage band and I'll make something similar, AND better.


This little black metal fanboy can still hope Lendey's little side project might return to its former glory, but it's quite unlikely.


Avoid this.