Waterloo Records decided to put four bands onto this release, presumably for ADHD sufferers who can’t listen to the same band for more than 5 minutes without jumping out of the nearest window. The grey horse on the front cover has a very apprehensive look on his face, as if worried that the record might be on its way to bombing.
Another Kind of Death kick off this split with some energetic mathcore, ending the first track with a pretty interesting breakdown. This breakdown has at its centre something which is slowly sweeping through metal: something which I have termed the ‘Norma Jean chord’. The ‘Norma Jean chord’ is so termed because it was birthed in 2002 in a song titled ‘Memphis Shall Be Laid To Waste’, and is the single most cacophonous noise you can make with one strum of a guitar. In other words, it is a very beautiful thing. Thankfully Another Kind of Death do not abuse it in their three songs, so do not end up sounding like Bring Me The Horizon: there is however something lacking in their music which I can’t quite lay my finger on- a lack of precision or definition perhaps.
‘El Ladrido’ by Adrift strikes me as a bit messy, almost as if each musician in the band had been given a restraining order of 100metres from the rest during recording and then recorded his individual piece into play-dough which was placed into an angry toddler’s clenched fists to squash in with the other miscellaneous play-dough. The remaining tracks, ‘Ramses’ and ‘Paseo por el Nilo’ are much stronger, mre thoughtful efforts. The latter in particular would be the albums most played were it not for its daunting 9 minute length.
Moksha, the third band on the split, provide three offerings of tasty Spanish flavoured sludge. They are, in all honesty, the only band that I would consider seeking out outside of this CD. There is something satisfying about hearing the way this band plays- there is no straining of ability or wish to complicate beefy nature of their riffs. The one criticism that I have of there three songs is that the bass drum sounds like it is made out of cardboard boxes: but I imagine this is a fault of the producer rather than the band themselves. Moho sound like a slowed down version of Moksha, where the riffs are repeated over and over. And over. The saving grace here, apart from being satisfying songs to wind down the album, is that the repetitive riffs are pretty well written: ‘Gargantor’ in particular is one to revisit.
The grey horse was right to be apprehensive about this record- I think those who find themselves buying it will be hitting the skip button six times before any real musical satisfaction can be had.
