Bloodtruth - Obedience review
| Band: | Bloodtruth |
| Album: | Obedience |
| Style: | Brutal death metal, Technical death metal |
| Release date: | September 16, 2014 |
| A review by: | Ilham |
01. Subvenite
02. Surrounded By Blind Bigots
03. Throes Of Death
04. Suppurating Of Deception
05. Coerced To Serve
06. Quench Your Thirst
07. Summoning The Heretics
08. Foresworn
09. March Of The Fools
10. Obedience
I'm tired and angry. I won't make the slightest effort to make this review interesting, or easy to read. Nor will I try to be original. And I certainly won't resort to intricate sentences to make this longer than it has to be. Why would I put more work into this than Bloodtruth did when writing the album?
Obedience is a technical death album. There. I've said it all. I could have stopped right there really. Are the drums and guitars indeed complicated? Hella. Is it all topped by a guy growling? Yep. Is it really brutal? Sorry to reply with another question, but is a joke you heard a hundred times already still really funny?
Is it at least a good tech death album? Yeah, it's alright. You and I - and everyone else - have heard better. The only thing that could save Bloodtruth's début is the production, which unfortunately proves to be "too good": instead of giving Obedience the edge it so desperately needs, it polishes and flattens everything down to basic modern tech death standards. Fans of the genre will most likely enjoy the album, although I doubt they will ever go back to it often. Indeed, as a fan of all things extreme, the first listen wasn't unpleasant at all, I'm just very disappointed when I see wasted potential.
If someone tells me right now that Bloodtruth is just "a thing", a hobby shared by a bunch of talented but bored musicians, I'll stop complaining. However, whatever the reasons behind any artistic decision are, when you unveil your work and expect people to listen to it, pay for shows, merch and physical copies, it is not entirely yours anymore. As a consequence it becomes open for criticism. Thus I take full responsibility of what I am writing, and hope for a better follow-up. Done.
---
- "Okay guys, band meeting! First item: people realised we didn't have one shred of originality. What should we do?"
- "I thought nobody would be any the wiser. Look at how we threw some random Gregorian chants here and there."
- "Why did we do that by the way?"
- "'Cuz we're Italian and anti-christian dude."
Oh yeah, right, I forgot to say they incorporated chants. Gregorian chants in anti-christian metal. Wow. Such amaze. Many original. So apostasy.
Now I'm done.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 6 |
| Originality: | 2 |
| Production: | 6 |
Written by Ilham | 22.11.2014
Comments
Comments: 15
Visited by: 112 users
| Karlabos Posts: 5736  |
Gregorian chant on metal actually is original though...
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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| Susan Smeghead Elite Posts: 6941  |
Written by Karlabos on 22.11.2014 at 19:19 Not hugely. Many bands across the genres have inserted in with varying degrees of success. Even if it WAS original or uncommon in metal: simply adding something in to an otherwise uninspired album does not suddenly make it great music. Hilarious review 
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| Karlabos Posts: 5736 |
Written by Susan on 22.11.2014 at 19:23 I must have missed them =P Names please? But I'd like those who do it more constantly and not only an interlude here and there Written by Susan on 22.11.2014 at 19:23 Yeah that's the case here, as well as the case on every band trying to do gregorian chant I have checked. That's why I say it's different and would be a good idea, because when you stop to think it haven't been done properly yet.
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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| King Bonzo Posts: 220  |
Anyone else get half way through the review before realising this isn't a review for the new Bloodbath record?
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| Ilham Giant robot Posts: 5161  |
Written by Karlabos on 22.11.2014 at 19:31 I agree with Susan obviously. But to build on your post, I am not sure if what I have in mind is exactly Gregorian, but religious choirs have been used tons of times in nm for example. And some vocalists tried to recapture that feel of Gregorian chants. I am thinking of Kvohst or whatever is alias is, in Code: Or in Void Of Silence (also Italian), the doom band. The frontman sings in a similar ways. I'm sure other people could mention tons of symphonic/gothic/neofolk/bm etc (really any band that's trying to get that holistic atmosphere) bands who used such chants, or were inspired by them; I'm just mentioning these off the top of my head. In any way, these Gregorian chants felt a little forced and gimmicky.
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| angel. Evil Butterfly Posts: 2419  |
Written by King Bonzo on 22.11.2014 at 21:20 Exactly! I even wanted to say wow! Ilham! Wow! I disliked the new vocalist so much but why so much bashing or giving 2 !!! for originality ?! But then I reached the part about Gregorian chants and Italians... so I felt relieved
---- The Fangirl.
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| Karlabos Posts: 5736 |
Written by Ilham on 22.11.2014 at 21:22 Well, whenever I hear the word gregorian chant I expect those huge choirs of people singing/reciting in unison, with the help of the reverb and all which ends up making a rather soothing atmosphere. But if what you were refering to is simply putting a doomy deep voice on a slow part of the song then I agree, it's overused =P
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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| Ilham Giant robot Posts: 5161 |
Written by Karlabos on 22.11.2014 at 21:45 Well Gregorian chants don't have to be done by choirs. It's a reference to an order of monks that used to express their faith and devotion through a particular way of chanting, if I am not mistaken. A guest Gregorian chant performer was hired for this album, and he performs alone. The video I linked was just an example of how bands use that "holistic singing" the same way to convey that atmosphere, I was not implying Kvohst is a Gregorian singer  . I would have linked you to one of those interludes but I can't find an official source.
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| foschino Account deleted |
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| Mattybu Posts: 2589  |
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| Ilham Giant robot Posts: 5161 |
Written by [user id=5475] on 22.11.2014 at 22:14 Nah don't take it seriously, it's just that the label describes the band as taking inspiration from their cultural heritage to develop an anti-Christian theme. As you can see it was clearly caricatured and deformed in order to *drum roll* make a joke. I think that was obvious, wasn't it ? It could have been bm + Norwegian for instance.Thank you for the compliments though  .
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989  |
Yeah, these guys should just leave the "Gregorian chants in metal" tactic to DSO
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Frodd Account deleted |
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| Alex F Posts: 3519  |
Glad to see you consistently writing reviews. Very convincing, so I'll likely never listen to this.
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| AnGina-- Dark Phoenix Posts: 3555  |
Written by Karlabos on 22.11.2014 at 19:31 I'm failing on pt. 2 (the consistent use throughout the band's discography), but what immediately falls into my mind is: THIS and THIS. And this. Not metal though.  I agree on the review though. Took one spin on the album and then deleted it. So boring. 
---- You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was a man. But it was nothing to me but blinding.
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