If you do not like the influences, how will you view the child of such disliked origins? This is the problem that reveals itself for
Slavior. The members are all talented individuals,
Fates Warning's Mark Zonder on drums, Wayne Findlay on bass, guitars and keys and Gregg Analla on vocals. But the well of influences they minded for this
Slavior album is worn tattered and open on their sleeves, and thus effects the result of such unholy unions.
Without a doubt,
Slavior is a rock album. But that rock comes from what you would hear on modern radio these days. Its harsh, murky, peppered with rap/hip hop/reggae backgrounds shining clear through. Bits of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nickleback, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, clash and mingle oddly in those few and far inbetween moments of progressive metal clarity. These are shots in the arm direct from the
Fates Warning link and are also noted in the many time changes, rhythm switches and so forth that leave
Slavior feeling more like a patchwork of radio rock's worst offenders.
Some will elevate this disc to heaven sent standards just for having the balls to push buttons, alienate fanbases, and otherwise release a record that is very unlike anything else on the market. But its boring, its pretentious, and being a mixture of everything most metal fans dislike about the commercial side of the genre today, its so called "fresh charms" are not necessarily going to win them any favors.
"Dove" is a dreadful rock-reggae track that shows off the abilities of its musicians but fails where songwriting is concerned. Gregg Analla swaggers and grooves through the vocal lines with ease but ends up being uninteresting. Something about his delivery is hard to pinpoint. It has a false portrayal of passion. Like an amateur actor stumbling around on stage, he goes through the motions, but the audience remains unconvinced that there's any real feeling behind it. Especially when the same verses are repeated to the point of loathsome irritation to drive the point home mercilessly. Zonder's percussion is done quite tightly, but who's to care when your song completely sucks?
"Origin" is hard and metal, the guitars being down tuned and gutteral. The murky mess is shoved aside for a few moments of superb electric soloing, but then its back to the gritty grind.
"Shatter" has funk and spoken-rapped sections. Absolutely appalling. It's so haughty and pretentious, you can spot that its trying to be "hip", "artsy" and "commercial friendly" - all at once - and seen for what it truly is, a mile away.
"Altar" is typical no frills (or thrills for that matter) nu-rock, straightforward, attitudey but lacking any sense of inspiration or structured melody.
"Another Planet" pushes the prog envelope and becomes wrapped in effects and spacey-drug hazed psychedelicness. A trippy groove from another universe, without even having to pop a pill to distort reality. This unique piece does all the far-out effects for you in its strange peculiar ways, yet irritatingly so.
The last cut, the final
"Red Road" goes through many changes on its journey, from the dark downtrodden chugging rock to dance-like beats, acoustic flourishes that seem quite firmly adorned with the prog rock feel, and a sweet lengthy guitar solo. These switches are uneven, sudden, and rather jarring. Its a very broken, worn and jagged
"Red Road", but is perhaps the best example of
Slavior's strange combination of influences that results in an actual listenable progressive rock flavored song. Thats a ringing endorsement considering most tracks on this disc is nearly unsalvagable.
The dumptruck of suck is hitting the road again, this time running over melody and flattening it like a roadkill pancake. All while on the way to deliver this steaming pile of pretentious, radio infested garbage to the musical landfill. That stinking, wretched grave where crappy albums are abandoned and left to die. The band gets points for effort and musicianship, but songwriting was thrown out the window somewhere along the way, and someone forgot to inform the singer that this was not a hip hop/raprock act. Undoubtedly it will appeal to some Linkin Park lovin demographic though since it did get funding, a decent production and an actual label release.
Written by
Alanna Thursday, May 10, 2007
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