Well I may not be very good at describing albums musically well, but being a non-biased listener (may be biased for Mike's works) I know what sounds good, and what are your expectations from a band. Believe me, I m one of the most ardent fans of Mikael Akerfeldt around, but that doesn't mean I keep on blindly supporting every stuff they come out with.
After their debut album "Resurrection Through Carnage" ( with Mike on vocals) they ushered a completely new era in Swedish Death Metal scene. Seriously this album made me a huge fan of his vocals ability. Even after Mike's exit they came out with another fucking epic great album in the form of "Nightmares Made Flesh". People hailed them as the new Swedish super-group filling in the shoes of the greats like Dismember, Grave etc.
And then comes this EP. Annoying, disappointing, boring, wankery are the perfect words to describe this. The album begins with a familiar Old School Melo-death sound, but then suddenly after a few minutes of plays it takes a huge turn and thats where this starts failing for me.
I just fail to understand the obsession of upcoming and even older bands to shift to technicality and add progressive elements to the releases. Ok, Mike is the frontman of an extreme progressive band called Opeth, but then he was still there in opeth when he came out with the first release of the band, isn't it? The band tries too much to impress the fans by guitar and double bass wankery right from the first song itself till the very end of this EP. "Weak Aside" is the weakest track in the entire EP. The sudden tempo shift at 1.51, and to make it worse, drawing influences from Pitbulls In The Nursery at 1.26 and the end of the track(I m talking about the riffs). They do it time and again in other tracks too. As it progresses, it just goes beyond my wildest imaginations as in what the fuck is on these guys' mind. Why aren't they trying to stick to one particular style? Experimentations has worked wonders for many bands but then it has led to strongest criticisms too if you fail badly at it, which mostly is the case with many a bands, and I am afraid to say this is true for Bloodbath too.
Well, its not like I am against Technical Death Metal or Progressive Death sound, believe me they are one of the most accomplished genres in Death Metal
but there are proper ways to put that in an album, even if you manage to produce guitar riffs like Pitbulls In The Nursery why aren't you backing it with odd-time signatures and complex drum patterns and prominent tempo shifts with bass guitar solos? See, thats where you start to feel why Dan Swano was such an important member of this band.
But whatever, there is something in store for fan-boys; yeah, you heard me right. Mike's vocals are good if not great, well suited for a Progressive Death band, but as I said I am missing the Old School Melo-death sound. And then there is "Mouth for Praising Words" (well at least the first half of it). Rest all is crap, you better be true to your words Mikael, as I m counting very high on Opeth's upcoming release too and better come out with a killer Bloodbath full-length.
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plan on ordering a copy tomorrow.
