Rockfreaks.net

Insidious

Digital Disdain

Written by: PP on 20/08/2008 02:10:11

I fail to understand how bands like Insidious get signed, and I understand even less about the people who listen to them actively, or consider themselves fans of them. Apparently their genre is called cyber-metal, a self-christened fancy name for a progressive technical death metal band that inserts a couple of out-of-place industrial samples to provide for breathing-room between their crushing serpentine riffs and blast beat hell. "Digital Disdain" is their debut album, and I wish I could offer a glimpse of hope for a better future, but I really can't.

You see, instrumentally, the landscape is mostly textbook death metal, excluding the occasional strange time signature or the ridiculously fast drumming, which sometimes makes you wonder if it's all computer programmed. Sure, the cyber metal description holds to a certain extent, but never are the two elements mixed in any meaningful way, and are instead left on their own, like two separate entities altogether! Consequently, you get songs like "Blood Harvest", which really aren't songs as much as they are distortion-filled noise with a bit of an industrial vibe to them. They just offer no satisfaction to the listener whatsoever, no offence guys.

And then there's the vocalist. I'm used to some pretty gross and vulgar growling styles already, having covered death metal and grindcore albums extensively as a part of this job, but the dude from Insidious honestly takes the piss. They are some of the most horrible, disgusting, misplaced vocals I've ever heard, and mutilate all glimpses of goodness some of the songs may have had instrumentally. The moment he opens his mouth, my face makes a weird expression, and my cursor moves towards the recycle bin pretty damn quickly.

Now, frequenters to this site will know that I'm not usually this harsh when it comes to reviews. Because of our desire to help small bands launch a hobby into a career, we sometimes smooth out a few details here and there (nothing significant, though) in order to encourage the reader at least to give the band a quick listen on Myspace, if nothing else. But with Insidious, I would be flat out lying if I would find it in my heart and soul to have any of you guys listen to this crap. Sorry.

Download: Subservience
For the fans of: Ground Zero System, Sintech, Mors In Tabula
Listen: Myspace

Release date 07.07.2008
Union Black Records