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September 7, 2008 |
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01. Intro
02. Windows For The Dead
03. In The Hourglass
04. My Delight
05. Sweetest Hell
06. Dying Eyes
07. Sadist Hour
08. The Masters Call
09. Ghosts Of Time
10. Satisfaction Guaranteed
11. Tie Fighting
12. ...Trying To Feel
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Apparently these Germans have something of a rep on European shores as Hardcore/Metalcore stalwarts. With the release of 'Hell Sweet Hell' their longtime fans are in for one helluva surprise then, because this steel shard of an album is Metal through and through! In a move that can be taken as both a) the obvious next logical progression of sonic development, and b) as a simultaneously crass attempt to commercialize on the same Nu/Core/Gothenburg sound as everyone else in Metaldom, FEAR MY THOUGHTS have morphed into something definitely more headbangable than it is moshable.
In doing so the band (Mathias Von Ockl/vox, Norman Lonhard/drums, Bartosz Wojciechowski/bass, Markus Ruf/guitar, and Patrick Hagmann/guitar) have admittedly opted to take the road currently most-travelled, but in this particular case with at least enough passion, drive, intensity, and subtle innovation to make me shrug off my initial weary, jaded response to the sheer amount of such fare landing upon my desk and concede that yes, this time there is certainly some definite potential going on.
Basically what one gets with 'Hell Sweet Hell' is a high-octane, freshly-sharpened DARKANE, DARKEST HOUR or even HYPOCRISY as filtered through the collective psyches of the likes of SHAI HULUD, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, and the FEAR FACTORY guys. In other words, it's sullen, Swedish frosted-flakes of Gothencore with an Industrial/Hardcore edge and ambience clanking and whirring all machine-like in the background combined with a healthy dose of scientific-minded, exploratory Tech-Hardcore. Nothing dramatically new or interesting about this approach either to be honest, as again pretty much every 'Heavy Music' act under the sun these days is currently opting for one take or another on this overall template in the hopes of gaining 'Sounds Of the Underground'-style, cover-of-the-latest-issue-of-REVOLVER-level status.
But nevertheless, much like philosophical like-minds DISBELIEF, the boys in FEAR MY THOUGHTS inject just enough aggression, energy, and tangible hunger into the proceedings to cause this beast to stand a head and shoulder or two above the ever-growing mass of similiarly-spawned acts currently clogging up the scene like so much flotsam and jetsam (the detritus - not the band!). I mean, I wanted to dislike this on principal alone - and despite my overall positive commentary I have to admit it doesn't excite me enough personally to warrant much in the way of repeat-play action - but the fact of the matter is, these guys are definitely good at what they're doing, and there is definitely an audience for this sort of thing right now. Riffs are cold and razor-sharp, vocals biting and aggressive, and the overall ambience throughout emanates with dark blue waves of despair and hostility.
Again, nothing revolutionary about that when taken in context, but hey...add in the more than ample moments of technical flourish and industrial weirdness these guys seem to want to explore to greater depth and at the very least you have a band who have managed to elevate the proceedings above the usual ETERNAL OATH-esque and ARISE-like, let's-just-keep-trying-to-copy-'Slaughter-Of-The-Soul'-to-a-tee championings of mediocrity.
This is an album operating on a level which hints that perhaps, just perhaps FEAR MY THOUGHTS are an act who will by the next release truly come into their own both sonically and philosophically. For now at any rate they are certainly on the right path towards that goal. Definite second-stage contenders for an Ozzfest some five years hence. For every other band out there however also tossing around thoughts of following a similiar Gothencoreish path...beware. As the above review amply demonstrates, the Metal world is becoming increasingly tired of such fare. FEAR MY THOUGHTS may indeed still be afloat so to speak, but believe me, the majority of acts cut from the same cloth as they are increasingly find themselves swept away beneath waves of critical indifference to drown beneath the growing, muddy-watered morass of doomed-to-remain-on-the-club-circuit copycats.
Time to inject some more originality into our Metal folks, otherwise all that hard work the likes of OPETH, SYL, NILE, MASTODON and others have been doing to gain the genre some respect will go to waste! Think about it.
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