 To be fair, the opening track from History of Guns’ latest torturous record sums up how the album developed for me. Born (looked at), Brutalised (ripped), Bought (got the gist of), and Buried. Acedia sounds like the thoughts running through your head when one hits morbid puberty – that beautiful time in life when many of us are discovering drink, embracing murderous thoughts, and whole-heartedly believe Kurt Cobain speaks to you in your dreams. Interestingly, History of Guns are a well-established studio-based goth/punk/electro outfit on the alternative scene, with handfuls of records under their belt and a respectful amount of dedicated fans hot on their trail... would you believe it?
The very first lyric ensures that the album starts as it means to go on. “Welcome to the world, you little cunt”, drones History of Guns’ relentlessly furious and spittle-ridden singer Del Alien, right after intriguing atmospheric panned applause has lulled you into a false sense of cliché-intro security. It’s a pity - the entire record is essentially a thick, hard-tinged soup of clever programming and exciting riffs that has been hilariously over-thickened by Alien’s try-hard screeches and ridiculously gloomy imagery. Titles such as “No Eternal Reward” (a track with an undercurrent of breathy ‘death death death’ pedals) , “It’s Easy (To Go Blind)” and “What Have They Done to Us?” scream to be punned out into good reasons not to listen to History of Guns’ third studio project. I never thought I’d hear such lyrics as “Go bleed in silence!” on a musically mature and heavily 21st century punk recording, but perhaps I’m too far out of the loop and just can’t appreciate what makes this certain gothrodite tick.
Once you begrudgingly accept Alien’s vocals, a handful of the tracks become (barely) bearable. “I’ll Be Waiting” chugs along without causing too much offence and “Empty Eyes” would probably make a good goth club tune, minus the horrible drawl. Sadly, I reckon by the time you’ve reached the shitty tribal tom bashing of “Exhaust Fumes” and heard the story about fathers killing children with gas in various incarnations you’ll want to smack Del Alien in the face and pat the rest of the musicians in the band on the back in sympathy. “Never Forgive You” is a bit of a vocal travesty too, but accompanied by slightly spikier drumming and a funny little organ plonk. Alien doesn’t seem to bother pitching his voice with the music in question, a regurgitating bulldog intent on ignoring the purpose of any sort of tuneful interaction and very rarely stretching his vocal ability to anything above a monotonous agitated crawl of a noise.
Punk, they say? This sounds like Buzzcocks piggy-backing with the devil himself. The electro elements I can fully accept and I’m actually quite partial to the Rammstein-like fuzz –the singer’s just mind-achingly fucking angry. Thank Christ History of Guns are predominantly a studio project, and they are therefore not unleashed upon the innocent public too often. The 'piece de resistance' for me is clearly the end track, and not just because it signifies the end of Acedia, but also because it’s joyfully titled “Killing Myself Until I Die”. So, so many quips in mind, but I’ll keep my journalistic dignity and leave your head with the puns.
www.myspace.com/historyofguns
Last edited by Heron : January 3, 2009 at 11:56 PM.
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| | | | Overall Rating | | 4 | | Vocals / Lyrics | | 1 | | Musicianship | | 6 | | Production | | 6 | | Creativity | | 4 | | Lastability | | 2 | | Reviewers Tilt | | 3 |
37% | |
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History of Guns - Acedia [ALBUM]
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