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By JEFF MAKI
Listening to From a Second Story Window immediately brings to mind other discordant bands such as The Black Dahlia Murder and Between the Buried and Me. The band's motto is to make music for attention deficit people. It shows here with so many things going on and a general lack of direction. It's easy to become lost from the moment you start to listen to Delenda. There is experimental prog-metal, brutal death, blast beats, acoustic guitar, odd tempo changes and transitions, jazz-fusion, piano and clean vocals all in the mix.
The Ohio-Vania quintet begins the album with a cool piano intro with background chimes titled “Acknowledgment.” We are then thrust into the noisy textures and disarray of “Soft Green Fields.” Let me say there's nothing soft in these particular fields. More like clanging metal in a kitchen while someone is being tortured in the corner of the room. The album grows stronger from this point with the manic guitar soloing of “A Piece of History Written in English,” on which a hint of strong clean vocals appear at the closing. “Dark Waters of Thought” is an incomprehensible slab of death metal with a chorus hidden under the mass of clutter. Cool, original ideas crop up, such as at the midway point of “Oracles and Doorsteps” when you hear girls chanting something in the background, or “For the Lost,” a somewhat jazzy instrumental piece. Clean vocals intertwine with deathly growls and menacing riffs during the second half of “The Crusher,” making for one of the most entertaining moments of the release. “Ghosts of Japan ” is a bold move for a band such as this, a piano-driven ballad that maybe My Chemical Romance or any other number of emo-bands could have pulled off. Results are mixed here. Same goes for the eight-minute album closer, “Mourning for Morning,” which has emo-style vocals sung over death metal riffs and blast beats.
This whole genre of noisecore, or whatever the fuck it's called, is recognized and praised for the musical ability and skill to transition between different musical styles and arrangements. To a degree, it's somewhat ridiculous if you think about it. So they can make a lot of noise and then sit down and play piano for a couple of minutes. So fuckin what?
Sorry, but I'm just not too keen on this style. I'm sure fans will want me put on trial for not being “musically intelligent” or “not getting it,” but for me, some type of song structure is needed. From what the band stated about the record, it appears as if they attempted this to a degree, but the addition was so small that it's almost non-existent. There are some cool ideas and many unexpected points during the album, but 10 seconds simply doesn't allow enough time for them to develop.
There will always be bands like this because kids like to fuckin thrash about, kick and break shit. Save for some select moments, that’s mostly what this music is for. |
