Words Won't Matter

Since I last heard a recording by this band, the singing hasn't improved in any way: it's shrill, shouty and ragged, and has a nagging quality that quickly becomes tiresome. At least you know the vocalist isn't happy about life generally. If you can, just concentrate on the music - although that can be hard since the vocals and lyrics are important - and you'll find plenty of emotion ranging from hate and aggression to melancholy in the melodies and solid riffs. The title track alone packs in loads of anger and hate, and in its later half where it becomes mostly instrumental there is sadness and regret. Percussion supplies power and force to the guitar's pained tones as the music broods on what might or could have been. Second track "Live" carries over much of the sadness and the track settles into a moderately fast mode featuring equal parts aggressive BM and almost folk-like tremolo guitar melodies.

The highlight of this short recording though has to be "It's All Gone" for its almost post-BM style and intense emotion and atmosphere. The tremolo guitar riffing and the lead guitar counterpoint can be hypnotic enough to capture your attention and distract you away from the vocalist. Thankfully too the singing gets out of the way quickly and for just over two minutes you get instrumental guitar riffs dawdling along in a very melancholy and dejected way. Bringing up the rear, "Ashes to Ashes" is equally intense though the pace is slow and plodding, and the screechy one-note singing keeps going with hardly any variation in emotion. Intended to be depressive, the track turns out more depressingly boring through repetition and the screaming.

Not a bad release but neither is it very outstanding - the music could have been a lot more atmospheric and emotional, if the percussion didn't come charging in just when you think the guitars are becoming really intense and the ambience is turning bleak and utterly hopeless. All of a sudden the drums crash in, bringing a jaunty beat which jars with the mood just established. There's not much variation within the music either and shorter songs aren't much more than open-ended rhythmic exercises. The vocals are very much a lost cause as they slide off into the sunset at a shrill level guaranteed to bust several blood vessels in someone's head. This release is very much for the fans already familiar with Taiga's style.