0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
John Zorn ruins a perfectly good metal band, December 17, 2003
Reviewer: Eric Jensen (see more about me) from Austin, TX
I have been following Maudlin of the Well, and for that matter, the entire Dark Symphonies label from the get-go. This was a band who showed enormous potential with their debut, taking bits and pieces from 3rd and the Mortal, Opeth and Sculptured (to name a few) and still maintaining an individual vision. Their second album(s) retained those influences yet saw the band expand their vision without sacrificing melody, hooks or riffage...which is, when you think about it, a pretty tough thing to do. To be able to write music that is strange yet catchy is a true talent, and Maudlin of the Well had it. But as soon as I found out Maudlin would be jumping ship to join Zorn's Tszadik label, I smelled a rat.
This is the same Zorn who's idea of avant-extreme music involves 12 second blasts of utter schizophrenic screaming and random instrument slapping. This is the same Zorn who beats music with a meat tenderizer until all the melody is gone. This is the same Zorn who spends more time thinking about CD packaging than about music arrangement and structure. This is the same Zorn that members of Maudlin of the Well (posing as Kayo Dot) were out to impress.
Let's be clear about something...I understand the whole "avant-garde" idea quite well...it's easy, just take standard music theory and stomp it to pieces. Avant garde music is a bunch of broken glass on the sidewalk basically. Pretty easy stuff to do if you have no talents or ideas. Kinda like taking black and white pictures of burned out buildings...the statement you're making may be profound, but a five year old could do it.
Not to dismiss what Kayo Dot has done here, but this genre is not their natural habitat. This style of avant music is best left to "Set Fire to Flames" or "Cerberus Shoal"...bands that have more vision than talent. Sinse Kayo has both, this album is unacceptable. Through the course of 3 albums as Maudlin, they've proven that music can be memorable, full of hooks yet supremely challenging and mysterious at the same time. This album is none of those things.
John Zorn ruins a perfectly good metal band, December 17, 2003
Reviewer: Eric Jensen (see more about me) from Austin, TX
I have been following Maudlin of the Well, and for that matter, the entire Dark Symphonies label from the get-go. This was a band who showed enormous potential with their debut, taking bits and pieces from 3rd and the Mortal, Opeth and Sculptured (to name a few) and still maintaining an individual vision. Their second album(s) retained those influences yet saw the band expand their vision without sacrificing melody, hooks or riffage...which is, when you think about it, a pretty tough thing to do. To be able to write music that is strange yet catchy is a true talent, and Maudlin of the Well had it. But as soon as I found out Maudlin would be jumping ship to join Zorn's Tszadik label, I smelled a rat.
This is the same Zorn who's idea of avant-extreme music involves 12 second blasts of utter schizophrenic screaming and random instrument slapping. This is the same Zorn who beats music with a meat tenderizer until all the melody is gone. This is the same Zorn who spends more time thinking about CD packaging than about music arrangement and structure. This is the same Zorn that members of Maudlin of the Well (posing as Kayo Dot) were out to impress.
Let's be clear about something...I understand the whole "avant-garde" idea quite well...it's easy, just take standard music theory and stomp it to pieces. Avant garde music is a bunch of broken glass on the sidewalk basically. Pretty easy stuff to do if you have no talents or ideas. Kinda like taking black and white pictures of burned out buildings...the statement you're making may be profound, but a five year old could do it.
Not to dismiss what Kayo Dot has done here, but this genre is not their natural habitat. This style of avant music is best left to "Set Fire to Flames" or "Cerberus Shoal"...bands that have more vision than talent. Sinse Kayo has both, this album is unacceptable. Through the course of 3 albums as Maudlin, they've proven that music can be memorable, full of hooks yet supremely challenging and mysterious at the same time. This album is none of those things.
