De ware hond (Stavelot - Ghent)

I am listening to this and asking myself: where are Lugubrum? After releasing such mystically grotesque and surreal works like Al Ghemist, De Vette Cuecken and Heilige Dwazen, Lugubrum stumbled upon a very unhealthy brand of experimentalism.

The first thing to get me scared were the guitars. The guitar sound lacks punch and is almost null compared to the greatness of Al Ghemist, for example. The first movement has a very generic black metal sound. Listening to the second and third movements was a true torture, since the guitar tone employed sounds almost like a metalcore band. But what about the riffs? Where's my Hunted Ordure, Attractive To The Flies? Or where is the wonderful mutant folk blues riffing of Heilige Dwazen?
This album hasn't got any proper riffs, it's more of a mass of riffs, but do they get forgettable. I could listen to this ten times without keeping more than a single riff in mind (the shitty riff from the beginning of the second movement). The feedback from sequences like the finale of the first movement does also distract the listener unexpectedly much.

From the elements that should have made this work more eclectic the one to impress me the most was Bhodidharma's saxophone. The guy has developed his style and plays great odd folk-like parts (in movements 3 and 4 are some great passages). I'd really like to hear these guys playing with James Chance, what a gas it would be! (unless they keep the crappy musicianship found on this album). The organ and the folk drumming, however, are nothing short of embarassing and do not grant increasing interest from the listener.
The drumming is somehow weak, the guy prefers to keep a standard mid-paced rhythm most of the time. The sound is similar to that on Heilige Dwazen, but here we have nothing too spectacular.

A strange feature that the guys incorporated is the hollow-sounding bass, playing really long passages, akin to shit that you could find in an X-Files soundtrack or crappy alternative rock acts. Worse than the worst.

And the last (negative) point goes to the vocalist, who neglected his phlegmy blasts from the past albums and chose to stick to Attila Csihar-esque vocals. Csihar was compared to a drunken Popeye, but the description is most fitting for this guy. No more great venomous spews, just a 14 year-old striving to sound as deranged and tormented as possible (Abruptum, take note!).

Lots of letdowns, hooks are nonexistent. They used to say "under the brown is grey, old grey hair". What should be under this album? Poorly conceived experiments. As a fan's joke, I am going to tell these guys that they would be better sticking carrots up their lugubriously hairy asses than releasing such shit in the future.