Review Summary: Razzle dazzle minus originality.
The Falling Tide is an atmospheric black metal album with long, drawn out melodies at play. Highlights include beastly, bleak shrieks, and sky impaling guitars. The production/tone of the guitar is so immaculate, that the experience of listening to the album is similar to experiencing it live. However, one glaring flaw diminishes the vibe: the terribly mixed drums.
The drum production is everything wrong with black metal. The snare slaps as hard as a toddler wearing mittens, and the light fart of the bass kick is discouraging. Consequently, the end product is of blazingly loud guitars and cymbals. I have a collection of beautiful cymbals on my own personal drumset, but even I am perturbed from the ceaseless crunches of cymbals. It’s much worse than watching your friend eating celery with their mouth open, sound-wise. The bass kick is also often impossible to hear, and mushes in with the guitar like a grotesque toilet bowl.
This could have been an incredible album. Guitar notes sparkle like Christmas lights on a tree, and it is ear candy. Long songs with repetitive guitar work - AKA lack of riffs - devolves into a long sit through. However, the album is saved and even intriguing thanks to its incredible, bombastically overdone guitar soundscape.
The atmosphere effects are so thick, you can cut them with a knife. Indeed, at times I was wondering whether a certain tone was from a synth pad or guitar. It didn’t matter at all, the result is an explosive sound - large in presence. If that melodic side of black metal is all you’re craving currently, you’ll love this.
This is quite a generic effort when it comes down to it. It doesn’t mean it’s bad per say, but I wasn’t wowed. Sure, the guitars have that glimmering gut punch, but beyond that I wasn’t very impressed. Drum work was either invisible or the same type of beat, which was not great. I love this kind of black metal, and they build a strong atmosphere, and that’s all I can say. The album is not complex, it’s simple, effective - not too effective. Hmm, not bad.
