VTT - Symptoms of Sin
Independent Release
Commercial Metal
8 songs (32:22)
Release year: 2009
Reviewed by Steve

Seven studio tracks and a live song which play for just over half an hour hardly make an LP to me, but VTT (formerly Voodoo Terror Tribe) claim this is the “new record” so they shall have their score. The “explicit” version of Symptoms of Sin is only $7.92 on Amazon, so at least they’re not trying to get twelve bucks for it. The band is from New Jersey and they’ve been around since 2005, having released one album prior to this, Alone in Pain. They call themselves “alt metal” but I don’t even know what that means. Presumably many readers will understand the term. I gave up on what passes for metal on radio a long time ago, so if it has anything to do with that, I admit to ignorance. It would seem a reasonable conclusion as well, since VTT offer “radio” versions of all the songs on the album available for separate purchase. I’m not prepared to pass judgment on that practice from an artistic integrity perspective but I will tell you that I stumbled upon the Insane Clown Posse video for that insanely comical song Miracles yesterday on my cable TV service and when I played it for my wife, I don’t think it was quite as funny as it should have been. “Regular magnets; how do they work?” just doesn’t have the same effect as “fucking magnets! how do they work?” I guess.

Symptoms of Sin actually almost sounds like two different bands. Tracks one through three could be Daughtry throwaways. These three songs have a lot of acoustic guitar and clean singing. Then track four, Never Died Before, starts off with some strange sorts of keyboards and almost an industrial or nu-metal feel to it and the vocals flip to a harsher style – rougher, but not anything like a death metal growl or such. That mode then continues for the rest of the album. You might think it would be this heavier portion that would be more favorably reviewed on this site, but the fact is the softer songs are better for what they are. The harsher vocal style of the heavier tracks simply isn’t a good one and the riffing is very plain-Jane as well. There are a couple of short solos, but nothing interesting or even remotely impressive.

The Victim, Light Divided, and You’re My Punishment, on the other hand, succeed quite nicely for what they are. Vocalist Gil Pz demonstrates a proficiency that borders on being special at times and the band does a good job of melding the acoustic elements with the spice of some distorted guitars. These are not songs that I’m ever going to listen to after I write this review, but that’s a matter of taste, not quality. I certainly can’t recommend you purchase Symptoms of Sin, but if you like melodic “alt-metal” with lyrics about love and loss, then you should check out VTT on MySpace and watch for their next release. Hopefully, they’ll figure out what they’re good at and turn out an album more like the first three songs here and nothing like the last five.

Killing Songs :
The Victim, Light Divided, You’re My Punishment,
Steve quoted 55 / 100
Alex quoted 77 / 100
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There are 4 replies to this review. Last one on Tue Sep 28, 2010 8:05 pm
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