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Zozobra, "Harmonic Tremors"
Yet another collaboration from the same group of people is getting tedious, not enough experimentation or progress is being made on the musical front. This duo comprises of Caleb Scofield and Santos Montano, both from Old Man Gloom and the former is also in Cave In. I have a feeling more people will be sold on Zozobra based on the artist connections than on the strength of the music. The Hydra Head talent pool ia growing stagnant and this mediocre at best album is firm proof that the label is in serious danger of becoming a circle jerk for a few select artists.
Hydra Head
While the music on Harmonic Tremors is far from bad, it is indistinguishable from the vast majority of metal bands who have formed in Isis' wake. Tracks from this album could be swapped with any of those featured on the recent album by Clouds, also a Cave In spin-off. Like that Clouds album, the vocals here are a major stumbling block. The growled vocals have been dirtied up with enough distortion to make them gritty but at the end of the day they resemble Slipknot or Trivium or whatever metal band is popular now; aggressive and angry because that is what supposedly fits with this music. That being said, even without the vocals the songs would still be average. It is as if more time has been spent getting good guitar tone rather than coming up with the goods in terms of riffs. Many of the guitar lines have the essence of a seasoned player going through their warm up exercises instead of challenging themselves.
"Kill and Crush" and "Invisible Wolves" are both sub-par in terms of songwriting. I hear many bands who have only been playing a few months performing at open mic nights come up with songs of a similar quality, I expect more from two artists with a far more substantial recording history. Most of Harmonic Terrors come off as songs that have only been jammed out a little before heading to the recording studio as too many of the tracks come across as half-finished. A little more work and my opinion on this album would be totally reversed. The odd song does redeem Zozobra, I enjoyed "Silver Ghost" which avoids the growling vocals and the playing is stripped down compared to the other songs. It's a refreshing listen amid the other over-egged cakes. If more of the album was in this vein I would be singing its virtues from the rooftops.
It is not news that Hydra Head has turned too far inwards and spends too much time coming up with new merchandise ideas instead of finding new talent. They are relying too much on musical cross pollination from many bands that are too similar to each other to give rise to interesting offspring. Harmonic Terrors comes across as one of these failed hyridizations. While I am not saying that Scofield and Montano should not play together, both themselves and Hydra Head should be able to stand back and honestly ask themselves if this is quite as good as it could be. All parties (artists and label) have put out good music before so it is not unreasonable to expect something of a higher quality.
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