If at first you don’t succeed, I guess. Candlelight USA didn’t really get things started off on a very solid foot at first with their attempt to stretch into the realm of metalcore with Insense’s ‘Soothing Torture’, so I honestly wasn’t really too gung-ho to review the debut album from New Mexico-based Of Graves And Gods, entitled ‘Slit Throat Andromeda’. One look at the cover reminded me instantly of Norma Jean’s debut ‘Bless The Martyr, And Kiss The Child’, crossed with Zao’s ‘The Funeral Of God’. I wasn’t the least bit surprised that the music contained on ‘Slit Throat Andromeda’ isn’t vastly removed from either of those two bands, while coming nowhere near as close to the quality of the two previously mentioned albums (Norma Jean’s debut is actually quite crushing).

I cannot fairly write this album off as yet another faceless metalcore act that looked the part, and sounded the part enough for a label to give them a chance in order to make a few bucks and capitalize on the continuously growing wave. To be honest, more than half this album is really very, very good, and much better than I expected. Unfortunately, all too often it turns into an exercise in “two steps forward, two steps back”. As soon as I have the hope that this will be a surprisingly brilliant listen, they do something annoying that derails things. But at the same time, when I’m on the verge of dismissing ‘…Andromeda’, they pull out something rather fantastic, which again forces me to change my viewpoint toward a more positive stance. After 5 or so listens, this borders on becoming genuinely angering.

As far as the music goes, I find most of it to be quite enjoyable. The majority of the material is formulated around different variations of groove-laden, rockslide breakdowns, unconventional verse-chorus arrangements, and an interesting flow that makes the entire album play out as a complete work that should be indulged in it’s uninterrupted full length. It’s cool the way they use a lot of shrill treble riffs in an almost black metal way , and the guitar has a pleasantly warm, full tone to it, very similar to the sound you’ll find on most Chimaira recordings. The drums also have a really nice, clean ring to them, which provides an effective contrast to the burly guitar sound.

Of Graves And Gods also show a more docile side, with the unsettling, acoustic and sample based ‘That Which Comes Between Pt.1’, a very well-designed piece which doesn’t carry that self-righteous “look at how we can be thoughtful” attitude along with it that I find so insufferable among other metalcore acts. Actually, the middle three tracks (5, 6, and 7) are probably the least remarkable out of all eleven songs. ‘Kyrie’ has a badass opening breakdown flourish, which slips into a more regular sort of formation before a spacey, electronica segue leads into different thundering riff fests of varying degrees and pacing. ‘…Andromeda’ winds up ending stronger than it begins based on the battering strength of ‘Internal Holocaust’, and ‘’When Everyone You Love Is Dead’.

Like most people, I owned a 10-speed bike at one point, and I had one of those bikes that rode fast as hell with minimal effort, but also had a problem with slipping between gears and making my feet spin like mad for a few seconds before it caught on again. It nearly caused me to crash violently on a few occasions, and that’s exactly what the vocal delivery does on this album.

The problem doesn’t lie within the pitch or tone of the screams at all, it falls directly on the decision to incorporate flat, spoken word lines among the bellowing melee, which, to me, sometimes sounds like Slipknot throwaway ideas. Not only are they totally unnecessary and disruptive to the momentum of each song they’re used in, which is all of them, the spoken lines are also numbingly monotone, and ridiculously brief at times to the point of being utterly pointless, throwing only one two or three spoken words in at a time during a verse or bridge. It really made me shake my head in wonder after the fourth listen or so, and the only thing that I can possibly think that would be more unflattering would be to go the soaring melody route, which, thankfully, they avoid like the plague.

I’m really at a loss on this one. While the music itself is really making me a little crazy, in a good way, the sometimes bizarre and klutzy song arrangements when combined with the unpredictably inconsistent quality of vocal choices leaves me feeling a little concerned about how important of a role certain elements will play in future recordings. It’s like listening to a very intelligent and interesting talker who struggles with an irregular stuttering problem, and I’m wondering if this will present a problem with appealing to those with a limited threshold for poorly conceptualized singing. Until then, I rank them at about the same level as With Passion, Through The Eyes Of The Dead, Himsa, Cannae, and A Life Once Lost. Potential can only take you so far, so i’ll wait and see what the next album delivers before a more solid decision can be made as to whether or not these guys are the real deal, or just the newest in the metalcore string of Johnny-Come-Latelys.

This entry was posted by Dekompoze on Monday, 6th March, 2006 at 12:44 and is filed under Reviews, Of Graves And Gods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response below. You may view a   printable version of this page. You may download this page in   PDF format.