Tao Menizoo - Journey Through A Devastated Mind - review
Tao Menizoo - Journey Through A Devastated Mind - review
Tracklist
01. Wreckage02. What If?
03. Your Weakness
04. Released
05. Celebration Day
06. The Lie Within
07. My Shroud, My Scars
08. Messiah
09. My Last Resort
10. So Tired
11. Emotional Control
A review by
R'Vannith December 15, 2012
What the band seem keen to do is throw everything they have at you and by this I do really mean everything. Hints of numerous metal subgenres are utilised in this primarily hardcore driven assault on the senses. A very unconventional industrialised thrash is buried within, covered in a coat of garish bits of groove and even stoner. A black metal-like stride in "Your Weakness" is brought forth by tempo, drum and guitar work characteristic of the genre but made anew into something barely distinguishable. As a point of contrast "Messiah" is a rapid propulsion of groove thrash not too distant to Machine Head material. All this sampling of various genres as well as brief piano passages and echoed guitar lines surrounding random spoken interludes advising you about your emotional state make for an extremely chaotic listening experience.
Overall the album has very little coherency and consistency in structure to allow for the listener to attach themselves. When it does come together it can do so in very interesting ways but are often overplayed giving the record a very unstructured sound interspersed with recycled moments of accessibility. Some elements are more difficult to digest than others, the hardcore style shouts especially are like trying to swallow a razor blade as they by no means make the listening experience any easier. A tumultuous atmosphere is present in many tracks which houses all this untethered chaos within the song writing and giving the listener some sense of scope to grapple with.
This uneasy mind makes for uneasy listening and will likely never sit at all comfortably with you once experienced.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 7 |
| Songwriting: | 5 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 7 |
Comments
Comments:
9
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 Posts: 3099 |
Posts: 3099 Written by PocketMetal on 15.12.2012 at 15:03 It doesn't really sit in any genre well, which is the only interesting thing about it for me. It has mostly just an irregular industrial metal sound, doesn't grab me at all though. It would be hard to find some appropriate artwork for it. As for Devin I thought he did too..  At least I thought he did for his albums under the "Devin Townsend Project" naming.
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Posts: 178  |
Posts: 178 Written by PocketMetal on 15.12.2012 at 15:03 Producing & Mixing =/= Mastering. The review only said that he mastered the work of The Devin Townsend Project, not that he produced it or mixed it. Hope that clears things up. 
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Posts: 3099 Written by Saiyanity on 15.12.2012 at 15:24 So it does.  Looking Brett up now he's also the vocalist for Kalisia. Highly rated around these parts so that's interesting..
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Posts: 178 Written by R'Vannith on 15.12.2012 at 15:34 Huh, never heard of them, but a highly regarded progressive death album isn't something I can pass up, I shall definitely have to give that one a try. Even though the band reviewed didn't catch my interest, I still managed to walk away with something new to check out. Good eye R'Vannith.
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Posts: 3099 Written by Saiyanity on 15.12.2012 at 15:46 I'll be joining you there, haven't heard them before either.
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Posts: 469
Just listened to "What If...", sounded pretty good to me. Maybe they fooled me by putting their most accessible song in their MySpace player.
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Posts: 4774
I might check them out, time permitting. The review got me interested
---- loves 小巫
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Posts: 751 Written by R'Vannith on 15.12.2012 at 15:24 It somehow reminded of Deadwing cover art by Porcupine Tree . ( I don'y know why )
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