Evangelion

My God, how this grates on the ears. This would score far lower if it were not for the inclusion for some songs which effectively served to pad out the runtime (tracks 5-7), because the first four are a total unmitigated fucking failure.

Sadness here present some sad amalgam of gothic metal and electronic/industrial influences, all delivered in a way not pleasant to the human ear, while bassist/singer (maybe whiner is more fitting) Steff Terry attempts three or four different deliveries which are mostly unbearable. I mean, listen to the pathetic, whiny chorus of opener "Mr Faust" and tell me you don't want to board a plane to Switzerland just to choke this fucker. Then there's a one-dimensional lower pitched voice which is used either to half-sing, half-speak the lyrics or maybe even fully sing a line or two. This is not actively offensive, although when combined with such dull, uninteresting music, it becomes just another facet to the terribleness here. And then there are his death growls, which whilst not too relevant as they only come in on the last track, a demo, are the best as they are simply generic and therefore inoffensive.

An additional problem is the fact that the guitarist seems to know a sum total of one riff, which he simply repeats over and over. Now, this riff itself is driving and insistent, and if used in moderation and not buried beneath layers of crappy keyboards and Terry's whining vocals. Here, I will praise the competency of Terry as a bassist, and he forms a solid rhythm section with drummer Gradel, who also has ability on his chosen instrument. I'll also praise the production here too; the bass is nice and prominent, and the drums do not have a clicky sound.

Fortunately, "Danteferno" is actually not too bad, with some genuinely heavy guitars and Steff Terry using a harsher shout reminiscent of Icon-era Nick Holmes. However, whilst it's pretty good, it cannot get anywhere close to redeeming this album. I'll also shout out "Tears of Sorrow" as a break from the crap that is tracks 1-4. Of course, that track is again trite and generic, but it is a welcome relief from the samey, miserable trash that dominates the first half of this. And "Red Script" is good in its death-doom sections, but these are maybe 2-3 minutes out of the eight that it runs for. So yeah, even the highlights in this case aren't really highlights, they're more "one good song with parts of others that don't suck as badly as the rest."

Overall, my advice is to avoid this like the plague. "Danteferno," the sole good song, is available on their second full-length album (which admittedly I haven't heard, but I'd hope it's better than this), and it's really not worth wading through the shit here to reach it. The only other positive to take here is that the band broke up before subjecting us to any more of their horrific Evangelion-era sound.