He opts for the clean approach, which suits the music, and when he stays in the lower ranges, with quieter passages behind him, he’s fine. The other problem is lead guitarist and frontman Dima’s vocals. This pattern is repeated all the way to worst offender, the closer, “Acid Lobotomy,” which ends up lazily cannibalizing its own melody repeatedly during its bloated 9:35 run time. But that riff is bludgeoned into oblivion by the halfway point when we switch to a slower, honey-dense section which mires the song down, and from which it is never able to extricate itself. “Undertaker,” for example, begins fantastically: a dense and catchy riff combines with purposeful drumming to set the scene. ![]() Frequently, songs will generate serious momentum with purposeful guitar work and melodies, only to be completely derailed by minutes of repetition, before descending into instrumental noodliness. The main issue with SC,SC is that the dense grooves and riffs are often great, but they’re diluted by too much repetition and meandering psychedelia. SECOND COMING, SECOND CRUCIFIXION by WEIRD TALES And when combined with the aforementioned weird tone (humorous? Serious?), and odd song names (“Dead People’s Shit,” “Krokodil Blues”), it ends up all becoming a bit bewildering. The problem is that only one of these elements works, and only intermittently at that. ![]() This is classic Kyuss worship but with the hazy, drug-addled edge of early Sabbath. The band plays psychedelic doom with a strong emphasis on fuzzy riffs, deep bass, and clean vocals. To get a sense of what’s going on here, we need to unpack what Weird Tales and SC,SC are about. It’s not for want of trying, and there are some great moments, but the recipe is just… odd. …And Weird Tales don’t really thread it, I’m afraid. The band’s promo sheet seems uncertain about whether Weird Tales are spitting hate at a degenerate society… or having “sardonic fun” with “filthy lyrics and psychedelic vocals.” Possible to do both, of course, but “hate AND sardonic fun”? “Rage AND adolescent humor”? A difficult needle for these Poles to thread… This is the sophomore effort from Weird Tales, following a self-released LP and a handful of EPs. Upon investigation, my heart sank even more. I was… “assigned” Second Coming, Second Crucifixion (SC,SC) by Polish doomsters, Weird Tales, and initially, my heart sank. Whether stoner-selection bias is responsible (munchies trump comments), or the genre itself fails to excite ordinary metal fans, the fact remains that anticipation around these releases is generally low. There’s also not a whole lot of energy from readers. As a result, it tends to hang in the “difficult to review” window of 2.5-3.5. It’s become a cliché around the halls of AMG that stoner doom is difficult to do badly, but even more difficult to do well.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |