Tuesday, September 5, 2017

With the Dead : "Love From the Dead" With a similar heft the new album from Lee Dorian of Napalm Death/ Cathedral fame relieved right from the the first few notes. Like a more hard core version of Tom Warrior the vocals are exclaimed with a shout and sometimes sung. It' hard to hear where the bass begins and the guitar ends as it's been mixed into one fuzzy frequency. There is less of a doom feel to "Egyptian Tomb" and more of a crusty sludge feel with the vocals shouted in more of a militant punk manner. It has more momentum, but I am sure that they are really giving us nothing that we have not heard before. This is disappointing as as the mood of their previous album was much more unique. There is a similar density to the fuzz that fills "Reincarnation of Yesterday". The pace is picked up and the guitar provides a little more depth. Mostly this song also works off the same kind of stomp this band favors.

You would imagine a song called "Cocaine Phantoms" to move at a more frantic pace, but instead they slow down . The music takes a darker turn and the vocals are not as shouted so it provides a little more color to the album. "Watching the World Go By" feels more like an interlude as the vocals are more of a spoken narrative. It doesn't build up into a song til much later in the piece. The vocals on "Anemia" return to that almost hard core type of shout , though a few degrees more relaxed. I do like the darker guitar melody that flows through this song. Midway into the song, I do begin to wonder where the hell are they going to be able to go from here. They close the album without veering off course from the familiar frequency they stick pretty close to . It might be the production choices , but I preferred the more apocalyptic sense that haunted their first album. Though there is nothing that really justifies this song for being seventeen minutes, they do add the ambiance I like ater but really that more of a case of ...why the hell didn't you do that earlier.

There is not doubt this is am ore raw and straight forward follow up that doesn't cater to what I first liked about this band. I'll be generous and give this a 8, as it does have some strong moments, I just prefer my doom to be more dynamic and layered but there is something for every one and these guys are still good at what they do.
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