This review has been marinating for a while because I wasn’t sure a shitload of listens was enough.  Moments of technicality lubricated in olive oil (they are Greek), distinctive tones that tear like ice picks through cadaverous flesh, and more awkward touches from that creepy uncle named synth are what’s in store.  Sickening Horror once again deliver the goods.  The question that lingers has been, is it great?

After hearing their first album, When Landscapes Bled Backwards, I felt that they were an imminent threat to the throne of experimental death metal royalty.  The tones, song writing, and overall feel was unique and worthy of praise.  Although their latest delivers killer material, the band has not stepped up in my opinion.  This album is right in between excellence and the “worth a few spins” category.  I have been struggling with the appropriate rating for a couple months.  The fact that I have a life is now open for debate I guess.

The only big change to the band on its sophomore effort was that heavyweight drummer Kollias departed.  If that sounds unsettling, I don’t blame you.  He is certainly one of the best metal drummers of all-time.  His replacement, Alex Zachos, is great in his own right.  He isn’t Kollias, but he is much better than the average death metal drummer.  His style is similar to Kollias, but his overall musicianship isn’t quite up to championship standards.

The 6 and 5-string attack are very distinctive in approach and tone.  As I mentioned in my review of their first album, once you hear a few notes, separating their sound from the herd is simple.  You have to appreciate a band that is, at least, distinctive.  The bass tone sounds like there are hints of chorus, compression, and a dusting of reverb.  It’s hard to pin those tonal colors down, but that is the way it sounds to me.  The guitarist and vocalist, George Antipatis, relinquishes only the most cold and angular deliveries.  He is a truly skilled front man.  His vocals are grizzly and toeing the line between intelligibility and its opposite.  Overall, the band has continued down the same path.  It basically boils down to semi-technical death metal with some experimental and industrial flavors.

The synthy sounds and drum pads are hitting on mostly industrialesque flavors.  They are hit or miss.  The opening to the album has some drum pads triggering what sounds like the intro to some gay-ass techno or house music.  After that, the first track just feels “worthwhile”.    Don’t forget about the clean “jazzy” bits that all the technical bands want to throw in these days.  Sickening Horror will let your ass have that shit about one minute into the first song.  It sounds cool, but it’s so played out at this point.  I’m waiting for a death metal band to incorporate some reggae or funk just to get off the beaten path.

About half the songs on this album are excellent, the others just feel like a sophomore cliche.  The song writing shows that they can be on a superior level, but it just isn’t held at a consistent level.  The coldness, the hookiness, and the occasional grooves are all there in doses.  Track two, The Universe Within, gives you just that.  There is even a thrashy bit that cues a very short, but killer, solo.  As the track progresses, the intro riffs mutate into slower and more sinister incarnations.  There is a torch somewhere just slightly out of their collective grasp.

There are no bands that come to my mind as an easy comparison.  I won’t even try to force any venn diagrams here.  These guys have a sound all their own.  The synth stuff adds greatly to this equation, but on this album it just felt unneeded 50% of the time.  I’m all for experimentation when the extra ingredients add something.  I was left scratching my head on a couple too many extra-curricular synth/triggered moments.  A few of the songs, including the first track, just don’t have me nodding and thrashing as much as I would like.  Even though I like their first album better, this is still very solid.  The metal world needs more bands like Sickening Horror.  Sell some of your stupid DVDs and pony up for a worthwhile ride if you’re done watching Independence Day and all that other bullshit you call entertainment.

Review bySilky Bravado