Review Summary: A band with all the genres
TIMŌRĀTUS is one of the weirdest underground metal bands you’ve never heard of. They started as David Napier’s one-man band in 2006 that turned into a duo with his wife Courtney roughly ten years later. On their latest album, they are joined by their live session musicians Logan Thompson (
Symphony of Heaven) and Mason Beard (
Mystic Winter). Genre? Well, let’s say it’s complicated. Are they serious? I’m not sure about that one either. I mean, sure, their first few records had rather serious and dark lyrics, their newest album however… not so much. As you can tell from the title and cover artwork, this is a tongue-in-cheek kind of deal.
My Life in a Mediocre Metal Band is a comedy concept album based around the typical local metal band lifestyle – touring, band practice, dealing with fans and the struggle to get your music out there and heard. The album contains seven songs as well as three little sketch comedy bits that serve as interludes.
TIMŌRĀTUS have a clear vision of what they want to achieve with this album on a thematic/lyrical level, musically however, I feel like they are a little… confused. Then again, that is kind of their “thing”. After all, they introduce themselves as “a band with all the genres” on Bandcamp. This album really is all over the place stylistically – death metal, grind, electronic music and even some prog/mathcore elements are explored in a rather jagged fashion that at times makes the whole thing sound like a sonic representation of what ADHD must feel like. And I mean that in the best way possible.
The dual vocal approach
TIMŌRĀTUS are going for on most of the tracks works really well. Even clean vocals are successfully incorporated here and there. A great example is the track “Creative Control,” which is one of my favourite pieces on the record, as it embodies the “all the genres” idea perfectly. Bonus points for that “Southern Charm.” Another one of my favourites is “Chasing Trends,” an awesome, proggy composition. The back and forth of heavy and atmospheric/melodic sections reminded me of bands such as
Azusa or
Extol, while the breakdowns made me think of
Poppy‘s “Bite Your Teeth”. The only thing that almost ruins this track for me is the clean chorus (?), which sounds a little disharmonious and unpleasant, at least to my ears.
While we’re at it, let’s get some things out of the way that I do not like about the album. I want to be honest here because I think that is part of my job as a reviewer. I don’t like the first two tracks of the album. They are very monotonous compositionally, and also leave a lot to be desired from a lyrical standpoint. The other thing I have a bit of a problem with is the overall lyrical point of view, which probably only a fraction of listeners (those who are in a band themselves) can relate to. The comedy is very experience-oriented in the sense of “You know when you’re touring and this happens…” – no, I don’t. Because I’m not in a band.
Now that we’ve got these out of the way, let’s get back to positives. I really like the sketch comedy bits. Not only do they serve as much-needed breaks from the musical mayhem going on in most of the tracks, they are also really funny, well-acted and clever. Lots of effort went into these, as into the whole album, and it definitely pays off. Except for the two weak tracks mentioned before, the album is quite interesting musically. The compositions are not too complicated but still rather proggy and varied and have a little bit of everything – groovy parts, technical solos and heavy breakdowns. The most impressive aspect about this album is probably how coherent it feels, despite the seeming stylistic “incoherence”. The lyrics, despite the aforementioned problems, play a major role in this, as they serve as a “red thread” that holds the album together.
To sum it up,
My Life in a Mediocre Metal Band is a solid fun-metal album that brings a lot of creativity and passion to the table but could need a bit of compositional polish around the edges.
TIMŌRĀTUS truly have become a completely unpredictible band at this point and I’m very excited to hear what they are going to conjure up in the future. If you like music that is proggy, energetic and yes, weird, check this out.
This review was originally published at www.unstillemagazine.wordpress.com.
