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Jumalhämärä - Slaughter The Messenger review



Reviewer:
4.7

2 users:
5.5
Band: Jumalhämärä
Album: Slaughter The Messenger
Release date: July 2007


01. The Swing
02. Discover The Pigtail
03. Dawn Saturnine

I like buying cd's and vinyl. I like buying them so much that whenever something with an interesting description crosses my path and I am not a thousand dollars in debt – I'll most likely buy it. I don't really need samples or anything like that, whenever someone really recommends something I'll most likely believe. It has something exciting, buying something without knowing what it is exactly. It has netted me some real surprises and some real gems, but also some really, really awful albums. Take your guess to which of the two categories Jumalhämärä's Slaughter The Messenger belongs...

So?

Well, neither actually. You should've seen that one coming, shouldn't you? Slaughter The Messenger is far from a gem, but it isn't all that bad either. It's just... very undeveloped.

On Slaughter The Messenger the Finnish Jumalhämärä mixes their Black metal with prog influence and jazzy bits and pieces. It's a daring mixture of styles and they deserve credit for that (although it's not really unique any moree), but they lack the song-writing virtuosity to actually blend these styles together instead of copy-paste-mashing them. Plus, sometimes they simply want too much.

Opener "The Swing" is okay because it's very harmless, but with the second half of "Discover The Pigtail" things get bad. The song sounds like it was designed for those among us born with three pairs of ears. Which is a group that, last time I checked, isn't actually that big. Not big enough to live off, anyway. Unless they're all rich, I didn't investigate the subject that deeply. School projects and their shallow approach... blargh... erhmm... anyway... I'm rambling. The 'solo' sounds horribly out-of-context and is just a very crappy solo in general, and the rhythm section and the vocalist just can't agree on which song to play so they both just play whatever the fuck they feel like. And it just gets worse with every 'twist' Jumalhämärä tries to give this song. Am I listening to deaf people jamming here? "Dawn Saturnine" is the best track, because it flies by without any sonically offensive sections. Maybe this falls in the 'really really awful' category after all.

There are glimpses of potential, of great song writing even. But after a few listens they sound like pure luck to me. It doesn't really help that they never last longer than 3,56 milliseconds either. If you consider the fact that Jumalhämärä has been active since 1996 and has several releases under their belt already, Slaughter The Messenger is hardly classifiable as 'a rookie mistake'. I have my doubts if this band ever will reach the amount of improvement necessary.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 6
Songwriting: 4
Originality: 6
Production: 7





Written on 23.10.2009 by If you're interested in extreme, often emotional and underground music, check out my reviews. I retired from reviewing, but I really used to be into that stuff.


Comments

Comments: 4   Visited by: 118 users
23.10.2009 - 20:21
Bas
Retired Staff
The review amused me. Is there a myspace page where we who didn't buy the CD can listen to the music, or do we have to buy it as well? (I won't though)
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BAS - Beautifully Accented Sexiness
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23.10.2009 - 20:22
Rating: 4
Lucas
Mr. Noise
Nope, sorry, couldn't find one.
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SLUDGE. DOOM. DEATH. Wait, what?

"The reason I'm running for president is because I can't be Bruce Springsteen." - Barack Obama
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23.10.2009 - 22:54
Fat & Sassy!

Sounds like a shitty Sigh...
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29.10.2009 - 11:20
GT
Coffee!!
This was actually very entertaining. Not an album I would ever listen to I guess, both based on the review and your taste in music being quite different from mine
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Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
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