Music

Album Review: Woe of Tyrants’ ‘Threnody’

Published

14 years ago

April 12, 2010

As the saying goes, ‘you can never have too much of a good thing’. In many cases, this is completely true: Money, love, Saw sequels (according to many of you readers), etc… However, in many instances this is not the case: Think of your favorite candy. You love it, you enjoy it and oftentimes, you crave it. Now imagine if you will, having that candy EVERYDAY. I’m going to guess that very quickly, you will not only tire of the candy, but you will get sick of it completely. The reason I bring this up is simple: ‘Threnody’ by Woe of Tyrants suffers from a you-CAN-have-too-much-of-a-good-thing-problem: the double bass blasting of drummer Johnny Roberts. It never ends. Ever. There are moments when the listener has a second or two reprieve from the bass drum assault, but these moments are few and far between. Roberts thrives on beating the hell out of his bass drums. I’ll give him this, though: The man probably doesn’t have a molecule of fat on his legs.

I wish I could go through the rest of this review without having to reference the double bass issue I have, but unfortunately, it hits every point that I usually make about albums. So, I’m going to have to come back to this problem frequently and for that, I apologize. But onwards we tread.

The first full song, ‘Creatures of the Mire’, shows off the technical wizardry of guitarists Nick Dozer and Matt Kincaid. There is a great deal of finger-flying and thick riffage happening all over the place. Chris Catanzaro bellows and growls with determination and ferocity. Shaun Gunter’s bass has an interesting tone, sounding very smooth and mellow. It doesn’t stand near as confident in the mix as it could had it a different sound, something a bit more dominant.

The production on this album is of high quality with each instrument sounding succinct yet not individualized, leaving the ‘band’ feeling solid. However, the attack of the bass drum is set high and it is EQ-ed to have a very sharp sound, very common to metal recordings. This wouldn’t be a problem if the volume of the bass drum were set a bit lower. Instead, at the album volume, it tends to drown out the other instruments because it’s always there! It becomes hard to hear what the guitars are doing in the lower end because the bass drum overpowers. As I wrote earlier, the bass tone makes it somewhat hard to pick out and also hard to feel.

Woe of Tyrants are obviously some extremely talented guys musically and they can definitely write a song. I just feel that if the songs had more dynamics in the drumming department, the songs would have had been more crushing and more powerful. This brings up another old saying: ‘Sometimes, less is more’.

Before I end this I want to make something completely clear. I love me some death metal. I love me some progressive/technical/math/whatever it’s called metal. I love me some talented musicians that can showcase their talents. But to me, the most talented musicians are the ones who play what the music needs, not what they want. I know that had Roberts eased back on the bass drum and played what the songs needed, the score would easily have been a skull higher. Maybe more.

3 out of 5 skulls.

If you want to get updates on upcoming album reviews, interviews and other fun stuff, follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimplyJonnyBD

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

2 weeks ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…