With Passion

What We See When We Close Our Eyes

Written by: TL on 16/04/2007 00:16:19

Remember what you thought when you heard the name "Bring Me The Horizon" and then what it felt like when your ears were suddenly mauled by the tank that is their music? It's kind of the same thing with the debut record "What We See When We Close Our Eyes" of Sacramento-based death metallers With Passion. Except these guys don't sound like a hammer, more like a giant blender, and you're in it. In case this metaphor doesn't clue you in, what you're in for in the following lines is a review of some seriously fucked up extreme death metal, that is to say the least, a very very aquired taste!

The "Passion" in the bandname has got to have something to do with the practicing of the guitarists, because well.. If you thought Dragonforce we're speed-guitar wankers, these guys are like.. that times five. Every song is primarily based on two guitars played The Fall Of Troy-way, only three times as fast, with the vocalist constantly dishing out psychotic raging black metal screams, whose meaning is pretty much impossible to make out. Not that anything on this cd seems to make any sense anyway, and that is actually the first and most bothering of the issues this album suffers from. I've been listening to it casually a lot of times, and when I did so, it did nothing for me. The only impression it would make on me was that it was some seriously weird stuff and I wouldn't ever feel like listening to it.

Thankfully, I'm a reviewer, and that means I have to listen to it, and once I got to listen to it through some decent headphones (NOT regular ipod ones) it became clear to me, that in order to track more than a small percentage of what goes on at once on this cd, you absolutely have to have GOOD sound, and you absolutely have to PAY attention. Once you do, you'll start finding so many absolutely stunning moments of technical provess in the chaotic mess, that you can't help but feel impressed. But even having realized this I'm still faced by the second great issue of the album, namely the fact that I still can't find any coherent sort of..vision or purpose that I'm supposed to be getting as a listener.

Let me just say it already: The music this band makes falls into the category of the hardest accessible stuff out there, and it will take me countless of further listens to get the faintest clue of what's going on overall, and I'm only just starting to feel rewarded for my efforts. With Passion succeed at sounding somewhat like what happens when you mix too many colours and what you get is grey. They do SO many things at once and change at such paces that if you don't really really listen it will sound monotonous. But I will still say this: If you have any kind of a guitar wanker inside you, somehow get to listen to this band, and especially to the songs "Tales Of Sirens" and "Vengeance In Departure", and tell me you're not a little fascinated with it. If guitars played at insane speeds mean nothing to you however, I think you might as well stay the hell away, because it seems to be pretty much the main thing that's supposed to draw you to this band.

7

Download: Tales Of Sirens, Vengeance In Departure
For the fans of: Bring Me The Horizon, Protest The Hero, Dragonforce, The Fall Of Troy
Listen: MySpace

Release Date 05.03.2007
Earache Records
Provided by Target ApS

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