Daath - Futility
Self-released
Electronic primitive death metal
10 songs (34'05")
Release year: 2004
Daath
Reviewed by Alex
Crap of the month

Futility. Never before has the album been titled so appropriately. And do you know what the worst part of the situation is? The fact that Daath will apparently continue to make music. At least, that is what their web site says “Using the Tree of Life as a roadmap, their [Daath] albums will be systematically exploring the adverse side of the tree until they have described all ten of its points”. Mmm, nine more masterpieces then …

Atlanta based guitarist Eyal Levi and vocalist Michael Kameron (formerly known as Dirt-Nap) got interested in all kinds of Gnostic Kabbala, so along the way they changed the band’s name to Daath (Hebrew for knowledge) and also decided to press their musical expressions onto plastic. I will not hereby argue the mystical points with Daath, and focus on musical side of the album only. If you can call it that.

Macabre gurgling voice spewing gibberish and Middle Eastern melodic pretences of the opener The One should have given away what has followed. Primitive riffing and drumming, super vomitous vocals of the appetizingly titled Placenta also do not help to start appreciating Futility. Could the whole album be like that? Yup, you bet. Futility is full of mechanical patterns supported by the annoying noises and bleeps of electronics that are supposed to be all dark and atmospheric. Whenever some straight guitar appears and the riffs seem to be going somewhere super cartoonish grunts and silly electronic “ambience” kill the promise as it is being born. Drums are so mechanical, they plain follow the chords without ever deviating for a roll or fill, that makes me wonder if they are programmed. On a cheap budget too, mind you. The closer Crystasis is supposed to be this epic opus, it has some nice piano melody, but it falls short as well drowned in the “boiling water” electronics effects.

I question if the guys listened to some other metal albums, just to get some “good” influence. And, no, ripping Manson (Blender for the Baby) does not count as a “good” influence. My suggestion would be to get a hold of Michael Knight’s Mechanica Diablo (see review on this site) for the manual on how dark and sinister needs to be expressed.

To give you a quick description of the album I am going to play a word association, Daath style. Heavy, in their terms, equals primitive, ambient = stagnant, effects = cheap, vocals = over the top macabre, so it feels fake, and lyrics = we think we are smarter than you, so we can say whatever.

Something has to change. Either Daath disintegrates, or if it is going to continue on its mission to map out the Tree of Life with more albums they have to get significantly better. Otherwise, all to follow “branches” will bear the same deserving tag, Crap of the Month.

Killing Songs :
Don't even dare to find one
Alex quoted 20 / 100
Other albums by Daath that we have reviewed:
Daath - The Hinderers reviewed by Khelek and quoted 55 / 100
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