WIVE - PVLL
Exile on Mainstream Records
Avant-Garde/Post Rock
10 songs (39:35)
Release year: 2010
Exile on Mainstream Records
Reviewed by Jaime
As far as metal goes, WIVE may not fulfil your steely quota. In fact the first track Toast to Famines wouldn't be out of place on something like a Sigur Rós album. Well, it might actually as it not exactly what one would call enthralling. The vocals are fairly repetitive and not exactly in tune. The violin overpowers everything in the track and is very nasally, bordering on painful to listen to. Teethy is a bit better though. It's a more earthy sounding, a little folky in parts and the mix is far more balanced. The vocals work better in this sort of context as well, as the acoustic percussion allows for a more natural sounding, roomy atmosphere where the voice fits in with everything else as opposed to the first track's electronic based percussion. Like the first track, Langvage is let down by the vocals as the music behind it is an excellent soundscape, even if the high end noise bores through you near the end. The vocals lead Lazarus and Dives and as such they work fairly well, the female vocals are especially nice and it's a shame that they're not utilized over the main singer at times. It's a little bare boned, with the piano driving the music with some glitchy percussive effects and acoustic drums making an appearance. And that damned violin again.

In all honestly, I've pretty much described the entire album with those four songs. Annoying vocals, occasional acoustic drums, piano heavy, lots of atmospherics and effects, huge amounts of, at times barely audible, post rock guitar, That Fucking Violin. You sort of know what WIVE are trying to do and push for, but in execution it fails miserably. All the songs are either far too repetitive, far too similar or both and the slow pace across all of the tracks doesn't help shake of this feeling. There are some interesting moments in here, The Day Bvrnt To Death and Slvmber's Edit stand beside Teethy above the rest of the songs in being able to keep your attention and providing some sense of atmosphere but there was one simple way to turn this album into something fantastic: remove the vocals. As an instrumental album this would have been a musical journey with a few mixing issues here and there. Instead it becomes this self indulgent, dull collection of "songs" that come of with a very faux intellectual air. As typical vocal led songs they don't work and the whole thing comes crashing down with it, where as a few more lead lines from any instrument (barring that violin) would have transformed it into a wonderful soundtrack. It's such a waste of that wonderful, interesting music and would've seen a 20-30 point increase had the vocal elements been replaced.
Killing Songs :
Teethy, The Day Bvrnt To Death, Slvmber's Edit
Jaime quoted 53 / 100
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