Message to Ourselves Outside the Dreaming Machine

Germany’s Woburn House were a three piece band, but have since become a two piece band after the departure of bassist/vocalist Fabian. The long titled debut effort, ‘Message To Ourselves Outside The Dreaming Machine’ consists of four epic songs, each coming in at ten minutes or over. Woburn House are a unique band just finding their feet in the metal genre. Despite the fact that all of the bands members, even the one who has since departed, have had experience with other bands, including the notable Klabautamann, this record establishes the German act as a rather amateur, but promising band. There is something about the band, perhaps the percussion, or even the production, that sends out a strange vibe leading me to look upon this record as an inexperienced outing. Although, as previously stated, it does show a significant amount of promise, but there is a lot of promising bands within the sludge department, especially the atmospheric kind, so if Woburn House are to dominate this breed of metal, they must act quickly.

‘Message To Ourselves Outside The Dreaming Machine’ is however, as stated, promising. There are several touches made on the record that leads me to believe that Woburn House can overcome any problems that they might have encountered on this record. Each song, of which all weigh in at over ten minutes, produces a number of fine soundscapes drawing the ‘atmospheric’ and ‘progressive’ tags that this band has out of hiding. The record begins with a spoken sample, which indicates fear and laziness as the reasons why man has not become as advanced as we perhaps should be. In some ways, this is ironic. Woburn House haven’t quite matched the evident potential that exists through the instrumentation on this record. Is it an element of fear? Do Woburn House fear the sub-genre which they play within and is it too difficult for them to grasp? Or are they just lazy? Rhetorical questions one will probably find the answers to on the next record, which I eagerly wait for. One does rate this record. It is decent, despite the fact that there are some obvious negatives attached to it. The most important stage of this bands career will come when the next record is released, which I’ve heard may be soon.

Despite having some brilliant moments, individually, the areas of instrumentation that make up this record, from bass to vocals, from guitar to percussion, the main problem is that none of these aspects gel together as a team to produce a highly quality sound. The bass suffers from the production, which is wearing thin as the songs progress passed the ten minute mark and one feels that if Woburn House had condensed their music down in to shorter songs, then perhaps their music might pay off and might come together as one. As that isn’t the case, the listener is sometimes left disappointing at the lack of substance. Having said that, there are several reasons to be pleased and several other reasons to come to the conclusion that Woburn House have enough of what it takes to make a success of themselves and this band. The guitars. Woburn House only employ one guitarist, which is slightly disappointing for a band of this nature. One feels if they had an extra guitarist, then the two could have played off one another, leading to some very interesting soundscapes. However, that isn’t the case so there isn’t much point dwelling on it. The second effort will definitely require a rejuvenated production, more impact from the drums, perhaps a second guitarist and a more emotive bass section, which only leads on rare occasions (see the beginning of ‘Motor’ for an example).

The guitars produce some nice, if slightly monotonous sounds. Despite the long nature of the songs, there are some noteworthy developments which allow the guitars to strut their stuff like the most beautiful woman on Earth as they conjure some nice imagery through the sometimes luscious soundscapes which lull the listener into a false sense of security before the speed picks up once again. The song writing isn’t the best, but there is a feeling it will develop. The bass is included throughout and is audible. It doesn’t quite match the textures and tones that the soundscapes lay down, which conjure feelings of pain and sorrow, perhaps even Nihilistic feelings. The sparse vocals, which aren’t typical of sludge but are screamed, suit the nature of the music as it slows down, then picks up with the percussion and a more aggressive style. The drums are as impacting as I would have expected for a sludge record, but this is perhaps where the ‘atmospheric’ (which this record can be, and brilliantly so like on songs such as ‘River‘) and ‘progressive’ tags come from. There is a contrast in emotion on this record. The slow passages stir very different emotions from the faster passages, which are locked in a struggle with anger and aggression. Although there are a few concerns, this record delivers some good moments that are accessible to the majority of metal fans. Worth a look.

Paradigms Recording has put out some really solid records. There's Hjarnidaudi's dreamy funeral doom, the overwhelming shoegaze/noise of The Angelic Process, and even the mellow slow-core that's Snowdrift. So when this record came along I didn't even bother listening to samples or reviews... I just bought it. While I'm not exactly going to demand my CD back, this record is a definite disappointment. There's some interesting moments here, no doubt, but much of this is rooted in the post-metal genre, and a lot of it you've already heard before, and done better.

Woburn House do have some rather nice moments though. One promising thing this band has is the ability to write chunky, mid tempo riffs. River starts off with some lengthy spoken word sample, and then goes straight into a real nice riff, somewhat reminiscent of Metallica's Orion. Motor starts off in a similar fashion. Hearing a traditional metal riff in a song may not seem like the most revolutionary thing, but with the exception of early Pelican, most post-metal ignores the power of the really big riff . It's a shame these guys don't use these riffs more, as they're definitely the best parts of the album.

Unfortunately, everything else tends to be fairly forgettable. The songs are all fairly epic, but they're not quite focused- it's forgiveable because it's their first album, but if you're going to have an album with every song over ten minutes, you need to keep things interesting and keep things progressing. That's not to say these guys are as boring as say, Opeth, but slightly tighter song writing would be a real nice thing.

But there's more pressing issues- like the lack of another guitarist. This may sound unfair, but a 3 piece band should not be playing this type of music. That's not to insult the band members- they're all competent musicians and the like- but this kind of music cries out for lots of layers (or at least a few layers), and a three piece band just can't cut it. It's not quite as noticeable when they get heavy and let the riffage flow, but so many parts would sound better with one more guitar, or some synths. The mellow bits can sound insufferably bare, and there's also a lack of decent dynamic flow throughout, due to the lack of another guitar to add some extra loudness. The vocals aren't particularly impressive either- not terrible, but the clean vocals are quite mediocre and the shouted vocals aren't too hot either. Still, they're rarely used, so it's not too bad. The mellow bits are a problem too.. Just not memorable and/or beautiful enough. There are a few nice moments of mellowness, like the jam that kicks off Cord and moments in the first song, but for the most part they're quite mediocre.

Still, this album doesn't offend me or anything. Woburn House have done a few things quite well in this release, but there's still lots of areas to improve in. But there's always next album. Hopefully the songwriting will be better, and a 4th member will be added. Should be interesting!