Illnath - Third Act In The Theatre Of Madness review
| Band: | Illnath |
| Album: | Third Act In The Theatre Of Madness |
| Style: | Symphonic black metal |
| Release date: | November 18, 2011 |
| A review by: | Doc G. |
01. Third Act
02. Scarecrow
03. Lead The Way
04. Snake Of Eden
05. Shorthanded
06. Spring Will Come
07. Tree Of Life And Death
08. Fall Of Giants
09. Vampiria
10. Kingship Incarnate [bonus]
Holy hell! Is that you Arch Enemy? No. No, it isn't. Someone call JG Wentworth. I'm pretty sure somebody owes someone else money over this shit.
...That's my review, folks. You might as well stop reading now, as you've read enough to know why not to bother with this.
Oh, what? You've read on? And you're not here because you accidentally clicked the wrong link? Fair enough, I'll continue.
Supposedly, this is a symphonic melodeath album. Er...Yeah, I suppose. Melodeath, definitely. Symphonic? This album is symphonic in the same way Children Of Bodom might be considered death metal; using a loose, poorly worded description, one might consider the categorization apt. The production on this is so wafer-thin there really isn't room for a whole lot once the vocals step up. There are some synths buried somewhere down there, but unless told otherwise (such as you have been), they really wouldn't even come to mind.
But let's not be misunderstood here; Illnath promoting this album as a type of music it's not is not what makes this a piss-poor release, it's the flat-out plagiarism. Hell, if the mixing and production didn't sound as amateurish as it is, I could be easily convinced that is the Angela & Michael duo. Some rabid fanboys who somehow managed to still get their dicks hard over Khaos Legions may be aroused by the sounds of this, but trust me, it isn't even worthy of the "worship by association" crowd. At least Arch Enemy can come up with something that gets caught in your head, good or bad. It's like Michael Amott sold off his reject demo tracks from the Khaos Legions sessions to a bunch of teenagers for a little extra cash...Ok, Third Act... is a little more aggressive than that mild, lazy album, but not in any way that saves it from being a complete waste.
+1 point for still not being quite as bad as Lulu.
Comments
Comments: 5
Visited by: 277 users
| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 26.11.2011 at 22:44 Now, I always thought they were a tad overrated by everyone who hailed them as some sort of sympho-black metal masters, but did this album really sound that bad? I'm actually curious now...
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Thyroid Posts: 63  |
I listened to this album and.... yeah, review pretty much tells it. Didn't work for me. Way too safe, generic and boring.
---- My belt holds up my pants and my pants have belt loops that hold up the belt. What the fuck's really goin on down there? Who is the real hero? 
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| Geist Posts: 6783  |
Agree. Their first two releases & Ep were good, I mostly liked them because the riffs, solo's & leads, really melodic, but this new album is just a stab at the already mentioned Arch Enemy sound. Not that this band was ever original, but they shouldve really continued & tried to develop the sound on their 2nd album.
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| Koen Smits Posts: 1331  |
One of the biggest dissapointments for me this year.
---- RIP: Frank Vandenbroucke (6 nov 1974 - 12 oct 2009) Written by Bad English on 05.04.2014 at 15:05 but spoil thius film is like spoil porn and say porn ends whit cum shot ...
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| Jason W. Razorbliss Staff Posts: 3523  |
Hmm... I don't find this album particularly great, as it seems the band recorded their best songs a decade ago ("Zetite" or "Angelic Voices Calling"). However, despite that my rating of this album is only a bit higher because the production, as you right point out, sucks, I don't think this review accurately describes the sound on this disc. I've listened to Arch Enemy equally as long as Illnath, and the derivative nature of Illnath to Arch Enemy is quite thin, especially in overall sound direction to these ears. Arch Enemy don't lean toward a symphonic melo-black approach, and Illnath are still fighting to stay on that side of the spectrum on this album as far as I'm concerned. There's also plenty of synth here, and the main flag that comes up with Illnath now is that they've switched to a new vocalist who certainly has heard an Arch Enemy vocal track in the past ten years, just like nearly any other growling female vocalist has. Illnath is more derivative of lots of bands than of one in particular, one of them being themselves, from their great sound from the 2 aforementioned tracks. I guess I clicked on this review because I wanted to see what you thought of the vocal change, and the difference between "Snakes Of Eden" & "Ravenous Crows," which was recorded with the prior vocalist.... 
---- "After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley
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