Review Summary: All sorts of wrongs don’t make a right.
Where do I begin? The songwriting? The mixing? The title? I hate calling out bad music but so much of this doesn't work that I personally find it difficult picking what holds this EP down.
I guess for background, Weeping Wound are fundamentally a hardcore band (I would have said metalcore but there’s hardly any metal to be seen here). They just released an EP:
idontbelonghere. (studio gathering). The EP is not very good. Everything, from the mixing to the guitar work, the vocals to the “ambient effects,” is subpar.
The songwriting (with the exception of one track: “dirty.goeldn”) is mundane. Chugging doesn’t have to take a whole ton of creative genius but when the chug-chug is so repetitive and boring as to actually be noticeable, it really does bear comment. While the drumming does occasionally try to inject life into these tracks, the guitar work is particularly lazy and actively detracts from any positive qualities this EP may have.
Further, the mixing on the EP really doesn’t do the band any favors. Each track is larded with effects to the point where it is distracting. More emphasis seems to have been placed on the sound effects than on the instruments, resulting in a situation where the band sounds like they were recording from down the hallway. The vocalist sounds like he’s three rooms over, the drums sound thin and the guitar work sounds empty. Fixing this alone would probably not fix the quality of the music itself, but at least it would be listenable.
The only standout is “dirty.goeldn,” as mentioned earlier. This track could be classified as the “breather” of the EP, but the combination of effects, dissonant mixing, interesting keyboard work and some interesting drumming make the whole "sound" they are going for actually seem to work.
In short, unless what I just described is right in your niche of likings, you would do better avoiding this EP. It doesn’t belong in your headphones.
