Buried Inside - Spoils Of Failure - review
Buried Inside - Spoils Of Failure - review
Tracklist
01. I02. II
03. III
04. IV
05. V
06. VI
07. VII
08. VIII
A review by
BitterCOld June 10, 2009
"Hey! Golly! Those are three of my favorite bands," I thought as I jumped at the chance to handle this review. I hurriedly popped the disk in the cd tray and with excited hands pressed the play button, eager to hear "I", "II", and the rest of "III", through "VIII"... Ok, so they aren't much for song titles on this particular piece. The repetitive title gimmick worked much better on 2005's Chronoclast. Not so good this time around on MMIX's Spoils of Failure.
Truth be told, the music was more inline with Isis, Pelican or 5ive(Vive?) than the aforementioned trio. They still strung together some pretty good tracks and I was enjoying what they were doing. It would have been a pretty good release. Based on the music, I would have given this album a 7.5 or so. (VII.V? not sure how to do decimals in Roman numerals.)
But there's that pesky "could have been" phrase again.
Why "could have been" you ask?
Ah, yes, the vocals.
First off, the horrifying howls don't seem to fit entirely in-line with the music, perhaps better suited for some black/death metal project. Second being that not only do they sound out of place, they are incredibly grating and annoying. Thirdly, and finally, they are way too loud in the mix. Frankly it sucks that all the cool stuff going on with the guitar riffs is being drowned out by vocals so loud and annoying they made me want to gouge my eardrums out with a grapefruit spoon. The band would have been better off pulling a page from the book of fellow Relapsers Tombs recent release, Winter Hours and mixing the vocals nicely in with the music, allowing it all to breath, as opposed to their actual approach which was basically like taking a nice steak off the grill then proceeding to drown it with half a bottle of ketchup.
The final rating represents the complete and final package. Musically, it was a pretty good release, unfortunately the vocals just really dragged down my enjoyment of the album. I enjoyed each and every song as it came on, just praying that it was an instrumental. So I cannot punish the music too harshly for the sins of the vocals, nor can I overlook, as much as I'd like to, the vocals and rate the album based solely upon what the band is doing. Would have been a 7.5 if the vocals were not so over the top, with them included, it's a 6.25.
If you are into that whole Isis/Pelican thing, I'd recommend visiting their myspace page and checking them out - the band is enjoyable enough, if you can get over the vocals.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 7 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 6 |
Written on 10.06.2009 by
Written on 10.06.2009 by
BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. Comments
 Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071
Totally agree with you that the vocals are the single most important setback to this otherwise nice album.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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 Posts: 6663 |
Posts: 6663
Hmm, I dont mind the vocals at all, in fact I quite enjoy them. They remind me of Versus The Mirror's "Home", an album that I still think is excellent and completely overlooked.
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| Posts: 15360 |
Posts: 15360
To each their own. i just found them annoying and overwhelming. liked the music otherwise.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Posts: 15360 |
Posts: 15360 Written by Fat & Sassy! on 11.06.2009 at 10:58 the thing is it's not a failure. the music is really good. i liked it. it just had two major flaws in it - the vocals were horribly annoying and the vocals were too prevalent and forefront in the mix. Chronoclast seemed to have the vocal toned down a bit in the volume department so it worked considerably better.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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Posts: 3857 Written by BitterCOld on 12.06.2009 at 02:06 ... Hence the failure.  I mean, if there is one thing on an album that makes the music unlistenable (which this music almost achieves), it fails at getting any person who doesn't enjoy painful agony... to like it.
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 Posts: 715 |
Posts: 715
Saw them live a couple weeks ago and they were very intense. I agree about the vocals, but yes, the music is great, and they have some awesome sludgy riffs. I've not heard them on album, but i think i'll get this one.
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Posts: 15360 Written by spirit_inblack on 27.07.2009 at 19:18 do me a favor and post your (brief) thoughts and maybe a score on this thread after you have. i'd be interested to see what others think.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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