Daemon Viam Invenient

This album was so bewildering that nobody bothered to review it in the last two years of its release. That should pretty much say it all, but since that isn't enough to account for an entire review, I suppose I will elaborate:

There is no question that Root are one of the best Metal bands ever, with a host of soul-searing, artistically brilliant albums for any seasoned metal fans to sink their teeth into if they haven't already. Yes, I have no problem with saying that albums like Temple in the Underworld, The Book and Black Seal are amongst the finest pieces of heavy music I've ever listened to, with their undeniably cool style and creative flair. With albums as strong as those, even their weird little nuances on the follow up Madness to the Graves were excusable. Sure, it was strange and kind of nonsensical, but it was cool, so how could anyone really complain? Well, the answer to that question can be found in the puzzling little mind-fuck that Root had chosen to title Daemon Viam Invenient, and it is a pretty tough nut to crack.

Root can be likened here to an old man who was once great and has since transpired into loopy mediocrity, but nobody really has the heart to say otherwise - he's just harmless, after all, and he doesn't know what he's doing. This album is just confused all around, with little coherent structure to it at all, and although I don't doubt that Big Boss probably had some ideas here, the delivery is just botched to all hell. None of the good ideas are elaborated upon, none of the songs are really too terribly memorable and none of them really seem to go anywhere. It sounds kind of like Root done by a cover band that didn't have the talent to capture the idiosyncratic and mystical dark energy that went into the older albums. The songs here are just kind of boring, and surprisingly flat and one-dimensional, compared to what we're used to for these guys. I don't want to make it sound like I'm only docking points from this because it doesn't compare to older material, but really, this is just half-assed all around. Even reading the lyrics, which are excellently done, you get the idea that this should be...well...better! It's fucking Root for Satan's sake, why is it so damned boring?

I think a large portion of that can be traced to the loss of long-time axe-slinger Blackie, whose absence is apparently sorely missed: there are nowhere near the amount of cool riffs here as compared to before. I mean, it's seriously like night and fucking day. This album doesn't even really focus on the guitars all that much, not so much as on the vocals and the drumming. A big part of the Root sound was the crunchy riffs and the esoteric melodies, but here all we really get are shallow imitations of those. Oh, sure, Big Boss can try and cover it up with weird jazzy solos and punk riffs all he wants, but the sad fact is right in our faces.

There is exactly one good song on this album, titled "Sonata of the Chosen Ones." It starts out with a cool little electronic effect, and then jettisons into a jagged Root riff with some deep, demonic intonations from Big Boss, and while it wouldn't exactly stand out on some of the preceding albums, it's a pretty damn good song anyway, and I like it well enough. But the rest of the stuff here doesn't cut it at all.

Okay, so "Human" is an okay song, and so is "She," but then we sink into crap with "Who're They?," which is a punky, fast song with speedy drumming and raw vocals that don't sound very inspired at all, and sadly that is about par for the course here. Some of these songs have cool guitar solos, but guitar solos can make anything sound cool, even songs as lame as "And They Are Silent," "What Will Be Next" and the insufferable "Hope Dies at Last." Even when these songs start to show promise they aren't memorable in any way, and the whole thing is just kind of sad to witness. Don't even get me started on the absolutely ridiculous last two songs, either. It's just better not to touch on some things. All I'll say is that both of them kind of suck and neither are enjoyable, relevant or listenable in any way whatsoever (hint, hint, guys, stop using static beeps in your songs!).

I think the best way to describe this would be that it's kind of like Hell. When people talk about metal albums being "hellish," they often mean it in a very positive way, indicating that the album in question evokes an evil and dark atmosphere and does it quite well. But really, when you think about it, "hellish" wouldn't really describe things like that, it would describe things like this album; annoying, insufferable and constantly bearing down on you. This album is like a journey through Hell in that it is painful like the sound of a power drill in your ear, overly bludgeoning and ridiculously inconsistent. The masterfully constructed atmosphere of The Book and Temple in the Underworld? No, no, no, this is the kind of thing the devil would play as you rode down on the reaper's chariot for your first night in Hell.

But even without all of that, this album is just confusing, really. It is a lot of things - silly, disjointed, annoying, shitty - but it is mostly just confusing overall. It's not an awful album, but coming from a band as exceptional as Root, this is sadly unacceptable. It gets points for creativity, but it loses a whole lot more for the apparent lack of coherent thought that went into writing it. It's like the band focused too much on being weird and forgot to write any actual songs on here, and that is not good at all. Daemon Viam Invenient is an album that pulls the listener in so many different directions that not only do they not know what to think when it ends, they also don't really give a crap, either, and that is perhaps the worst thing that can be said of a musical venture. This is pretty pointless overall, and unless you really have a morbid sense of curiosity, I wouldn't suggest picking up Root's newest album over...well, pretty much anything better.