On Thorns I Lay - Egocentric
Black Lotus Records - BLR/CD059 - 2004
By Philip Whitehouse
You know how there are albums you can only listen to when in certain moods? Like, you would hardly choose Napalm Death over Barry White for a candlelit dinner with the missus, would you? Or heaven forbid you should put The Vandals' 'My Girlfriend's Dead' on immediately after she asks for space... but enough about my relationship gaffes. Greek miserabilsts On Thorns I Lay have been pumping out the kind of melancholy goth tinged metal-lite for quite some time now, and Egocentric is not the kind of album you want to listen to if you're, say, preparing to go to a party or something. You'd probably end up staying in and writing introspective poetry instead.
Imagine, if you will, a mix between Katatonia's Last Fair Deal Gone Down, fellow countrymen Eve To Adam's Auburn Slip with a touch of modern metal's tendency to go for simple-yet-maddeningly-catchy hooks, and you've got a good feel of what the album sounds like. Add liberal swathes of maudlin atmosphere provided by samples and synths, and you've nailed it. Pretty different from when these guys wished they were Septic Flesh, then, a million miles away from their Crystal Tears goth/darkwave phase, and a good progression from Angeldust too. Guitars alternatively crunch away on infectious riffage then jangle away sweetly. For instance, two album highlights come right next to each other (not literally, that would be messy) - 'Afraid To Believe', with aggressive riffage, a nice complex structure and some great multi-tracked vocals in the insanely infectious chorus. This is quickly followed by the delicate acoustic strummings and plaintive vocal stylings of 'Unsung Songs' (which does also feature a couple of nifty lead breaks, but generally it's first class shoegazing all the way).
This juxtaposition of moods continues throughout the album - 'Dawn Of Loss' is a sublimely constructed instrumental track that sounds like the closing credit music to some romantic drama where the female lead has died of a broken heart, or something, while the following track 'Quotation For Listening' is a strikingly disturbing, slow-burning psychodrama of a track. The common thread that runs through it all is negativity - there's no happy ending here, laughing boy, it's downhill all the way. And for that reason, despite the quality of the songwriting and the annoying way the choruses require exploratory surgery to get out of your head, this is not an album for all seasons. Only the downtrodden and disheartened need apply.
7/10
On Thorns I Lay Official website
Black Lotus Records website
Black Lotus Records - BLR/CD059 - 2004
By Philip Whitehouse
You know how there are albums you can only listen to when in certain moods? Like, you would hardly choose Napalm Death over Barry White for a candlelit dinner with the missus, would you? Or heaven forbid you should put The Vandals' 'My Girlfriend's Dead' on immediately after she asks for space... but enough about my relationship gaffes. Greek miserabilsts On Thorns I Lay have been pumping out the kind of melancholy goth tinged metal-lite for quite some time now, and Egocentric is not the kind of album you want to listen to if you're, say, preparing to go to a party or something. You'd probably end up staying in and writing introspective poetry instead.
Imagine, if you will, a mix between Katatonia's Last Fair Deal Gone Down, fellow countrymen Eve To Adam's Auburn Slip with a touch of modern metal's tendency to go for simple-yet-maddeningly-catchy hooks, and you've got a good feel of what the album sounds like. Add liberal swathes of maudlin atmosphere provided by samples and synths, and you've nailed it. Pretty different from when these guys wished they were Septic Flesh, then, a million miles away from their Crystal Tears goth/darkwave phase, and a good progression from Angeldust too. Guitars alternatively crunch away on infectious riffage then jangle away sweetly. For instance, two album highlights come right next to each other (not literally, that would be messy) - 'Afraid To Believe', with aggressive riffage, a nice complex structure and some great multi-tracked vocals in the insanely infectious chorus. This is quickly followed by the delicate acoustic strummings and plaintive vocal stylings of 'Unsung Songs' (which does also feature a couple of nifty lead breaks, but generally it's first class shoegazing all the way).
This juxtaposition of moods continues throughout the album - 'Dawn Of Loss' is a sublimely constructed instrumental track that sounds like the closing credit music to some romantic drama where the female lead has died of a broken heart, or something, while the following track 'Quotation For Listening' is a strikingly disturbing, slow-burning psychodrama of a track. The common thread that runs through it all is negativity - there's no happy ending here, laughing boy, it's downhill all the way. And for that reason, despite the quality of the songwriting and the annoying way the choruses require exploratory surgery to get out of your head, this is not an album for all seasons. Only the downtrodden and disheartened need apply.
7/10
On Thorns I Lay Official website
Black Lotus Records website
