It borders on impossible to reccomend a CD that pretends to be metalbut can't get past the whole "loud" aspect of the music. Sure, thewhole thing is intense and the guitars sort of wail and screech alongwith pounding and sometimes sloppy drumming, but nothing of theattention paid to particulars and subtleties by the best metalheads isto be found on this disc. The guitars don't grind and annihilate somuch as they just vomit and expend themselves in drones and whines offeedback. The drums are always quick and heavy, but they never changeand simply keep the beat flat and simplistic. There's little to novariation in the all of song's structures and the vocalist seems tohave an affinity for straining his voice in a way that is more dramaticthan it is threatening or truly violent. Speaking of the vocalist, muchof the lyrical content stays to the "nobody understands me and I'mgoing to rebel against them" theme. However, on songs like "FlophouseNightmares" and "Angel In Disguise" the lyrics seem to be nearmeaningless practices in rhyme and rhythm: their topics seemnonsensical or they are just plain boring. I know, lyrics have neverbeen the creativefocus of metal but at least the simplicity of some of the bettermaterial conveyed interesting ideas or controversial topics worththinking about. There's simply nothing like that on Halldór Laxnessand so it pounds and moans on into what seems like infinity withoutsurprising, shocking, convincing, or provoking. The puerile lyrics onlyserve to attenuate the sound of the album. It wants to be powerful andexciting, but it can't be without some kind of focus and discipline. Itdoesn't need to be calculated but to be truly angry it needs to soundmore distinct than it does.samples:
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