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Music Reviews
GHOSTLIMB Bearing & Distance CD Seeing the abbreviated time lengths (only finisher “Loxodrome” clocks in over two minutes) one expects to hear a full-frontal grindcore onslaught. As “Port of Call” opens Ghostlimb’s second full-length Bearing & Distance it becomes immediately apparent that not only are they not at all grind, they are also not all hardcore, metal, punk, thrash, etc. but rather an amalgamation of everything listed. Fair enough. But… …while the vocals are a filthy combination of hardcore (complete with breakdowns) and Rise Against-y yelling, the guitars mostly chugga chugga and climb and descend the scales ala classic Swedish death metal, that is when they are not going into a straight So Cal melody that is straight from the old timer's NOFX playbook. This is rather confusing, as is most of the rest of Bearing… with its leaping and changing so as to never settle and clue anyone in to what it is exactly that may be going on. The infusion of so many genres is obviously nothing new but here it is simply off-putting. Take “Document” with its near classic hardcore intro morphing into a downright chaotic chorus and then back. Unfortunately it just doesn’t work as the parts seem to be fighting one another, as it also does with the other numbers (like the following “Saltaye” with its short-tempered punch to the face). Overall this cornucopia overview would be perfect in teaching the unknowing the differences between all these genres. The production is another aspect that gives Bearing… redemption in that even during the faster parts everything is perfectly separated and heard, as it should be. As an album, however, it just remains confusing, nauseating, and shallow. [Level Plane] -Luc Rodgers © All content copyright 1981 - 2006 YOURfLESh Magazine. All rights reserved. |
