Antique – Book One
The disc is divided into two chapters, each of four songs each. Chapter One opens with “Take This Sullen Timber.” It’s a mix of medieval synths, some folky and militaristic bits and a touch of dark wave, some metal influences…. The synths are really cheap sounding and don’t convey a lot of the power that they writing suggests they were going for, particularly in the march portion of the track. Vocally, it begins with a hint of David Tibet and evolves into an almost forced whisper, even though I suspect it’s supposed to be more imposing than that. Lyrically it’s melodramatic and tormented. “A Meadow To Die In” is similar musically in feel, there are numerous changes, but very little depth, each turn in the tracks are quite simplistic. A sneering Gollum-like screech, and effected but clean singing have been added to the vocal buffet. This is pretty much the formula throughout the disc, evolving but fairly linear tracks that incorporate the elements mentioned above, through thin electronics and vocals that with few exceptions are pretty bad. The sense of key and melody is lacking and rather than trying to ape Tibet or Carl McCoy or Death Metal vocalist 243a or whoever else, try finding your own voice and working within what ever strength you have. There are so many vocal approaches here and he just doesn’t have the pipes for it. There’s no liner notes maybe it’s supposed to be characters or something, but whatever the reason it fails. In some ways I hate to rag on Antique because I recognize the time and thought that had to have gone into this release, but it just has a very amateurish feel overall, the music seems to reveal some mistakes, the depth of composition is flat despite all of the different tributaries they take it down, and again the vocals are not engaging in anyway. It maybe be a case of trying to do too much at once. Perhaps after getting this out of their system they will be able to focus a bit more and tighten things up. I don’t know, I applaud the creative effort, but “Book One” just doesn’t work as a whole I don’t think. – Scott
TROSTLOS RECORDS
Worm Gear 