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Have you ever wondered with Metallica would sound like with dark Gothic harmonized and some Power Metal vocal approaches? Well, look no further then Black Penance by the Asian Gothic Metal band Meltgsnow (pronounced Melting Snow. This rather unique Gothic Metal act bring some dark and heavy material in the Gothic vein that takes influence of harmonies from bands like Entwine, but approaches everything with a Thrashy spin along the lines of Metallica, as well as the more obvious metal act King Diamond as far as the falsetto vocals utilized throughout the release go. Yes, this is Black Penance, and it's not something you will willingly walk into and love at first. Instead, it's going to be an album you have to take a little time to appreciate, but a quicker time to take the disc out of the player and shatter it against the wall for repetition and plagiarism. Black Penance winds up being a rather unique album that, as already mentioned, takes a lot from bands of various styles to compose a Gothic release that is quite often very dark, but once in a while seems to have exception on certain tracks, such as on the song "Empty Sky", which actually has a bit more of an Alternative Rock feel to the music, and plenty of more upbeat moments outside of the dreary chorus that slows the pace down to a very depressive state. Aside the more upbeat elements that periodically appear, the music on Black Penance seems to greatly take from the mid-career Entwine albums, but also steals the intensity of earlier Metallica releases to add to the music, like in "Through the Ashes of Prividence" and even "Lost Your Messiah" to make the tracks hit harder, and have the vocals fit appropriately with the sound. Unfortunately, this cascades the entire album into a shadow of Metallica for many songs and, in turn, winds up losing it's unique edge. The perfect example would be "Lost Your Messiah" which is fueled with their unique brand of Thrash song writing that many bands have adapted, however is done so well that in the end it all pretty much sounds as if the band is covering a specific slower paced track that they threw a heavier pace on. Of course, there are also tracks through the album where you'll swear that the band were just attempting to mimick King Diamond's style of Heavy Metal compositions, such as with the track "Empty Sky" which, outside the aforementioned depressive moments, has a clear change of space compared to the music established prior to, as well as after, this specific song. With the obvious inspirations brought into the mix, it's hard to sit back and say that this is a good album. For what the band is attempting to do, it works quite well, however there are just some songs where it all comes crashing down and often sounds quite terrible. "Lost Your Messiah", for instance, is just a very slow moving song that often seems to go nowhere but is ok for what it is. It's main fault is that it can often feel drawn out, and the guitar solo has a distortion used that sounds absolutely horrible in the mix, as if it were being recorded from outside a washing machine. At that point, you'll probably just give up the release, and if you didn't, you probably will when you are approached with yet another song that incorporates the same kind of slow musical progression to try to create a dark atmosphere, which only fails and honestly starts to get very repetitive, even though the song actually does pick up after a while and actually seems to go somewhere. And then comes "Black Penance" which is essentially "Crown of Serpents", just with a little more emphasis in the music instead of a slower pace that relies on the vocals to push it along, but still sounds rather repetitive, especially after "Lost Your Messiah" and "Crown of Serpents". Oh but it doesn't stop there. "Death Takes My Soul" again starts out slow with a melancholic spoken word (but this time slightly harmonized) introduction that you've already heard many times so far, and, at this point, more then likely will have you rip the CD out of your player and chuck it against the wall (or press delete then right click to remove them from your computers Trash folder). This song also has a great plagiaristic feeling of King Diamond off the album The Puppet Master. So, what's left after the lack of an original sound and a bunch of repetitive slow songs that don't offer anything too impressive, or even that interesting? Well, there's still a good chunk of tracks on this release that are still very enjoyable. The most entertaining of these tracks, however, are right at the start of the album. "Betrayal" and "Devil's Mind Ride" are some of the faster tracks on here that really seem to push the band and even have a very energetic performance that manages to create a dark, gothic atmosphere for the music almost easily without having to submit to going into very slow music to forcefully bring this atmosphere to the front of the music. "Another Lie" proves to be another good track, but again, it's more Metallica and King Diamond fused then anything, and doesn't even include any real kind of Gothic harmonies unless it's slowed down, and even that is pushing it. Had the band also cut out the clearly tacked on slower paced section that sounds as if the band were pushing a Jazz agenda into their music, it would have been a great song. In the end, it all sounds cluttered among musical styles and sounds very amateurish once you reach that far. In the end, Meltgsnow has a unique sound, yes, but it's far from original, and as you progress through the album, some tracks will definitely take your interest, and those few tracks are well done and deserve to be played on repeat. However, there's just too much wrong with Black Penance in the long run. Musically, the band doesn't seem to know what they want to do other then pay homage to three bands that could easily be pointed out in the music, maybe even more given the chorus to "Death Takes My Soul", as well as the falsettos clearly being King Diamond influenced at times, but that song and others have a rhaspier style that would be more common with 3 Inches of Blood. The album is more Thrash and Heavy Metal then anything, but still retains some dark Gothic harmonies and plenty of Alternative Rock moments, such as during "Love for My Seraph" which voids practically everything established on this release but is really the only song that brings in a genuine Gothic feel through some of the harmonies used here and there in the song, as well as includes female vocals that come out of literally nowhere, that seem to be edgier thanks to the falsettos and heavier distortions. The only real Gothic aspect to the album is the dark feeling some of the songs retain, but more times then not that atmosphere is brought in thanks to the band playing really slow and the vocalist trying to sound melancholic, but instead clashes horribly with the simple, slow music, and after a while gets very annoying and insanely repetitive half way through the album. Black Penance had some potential, but in the end is an album that really should just be sidestepped completely and thank the lucky stars the good tracks here can be purchased for a third of the retail price if not less. |
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