Raven wrote:
Dylan@Metalreviews wrote:
Raven wrote:
I sampled a few songs from their MySpace just before you posted the review Dylan. Upon reading your review after listening to the samples I bought this tonight along with Alter Bridge's new one. I'm looking forward to hearing this
Down CD in it's entirety within the next few days. I'll let you know what I think.
Sweet, let me know how accurate my review was after you listen to it a few times.
Hey Dylan, I thought I would check back in with you on this release now that I've had a ton of listens.
I don't own the two previous
DOWN releases so I can't give to much insight to your references to those two CD's. As for the rest of this CD I feel you were very true to the material. However, I just have a few comments for the 3 songs that you felt weren't really standout tracks.
Mourn, to me, has a definite "Stone Temple Pilots" feel to it. I love Phil screaming "Be my eyes" while having that massive thundering riff underneath it. He just sounds like he's retching in pain while singing this song. Is this song about when he was shunned from Dimebag's funeral? The lyrics certainly paint that picture.
Beneath The Tides is a big southern blues metal tune. It reminds me of Led Zep's "When The Levee Breaks". The drums are reminiscent of John Bonham's work and the slide guitar sounds incredibly like Jimmy Page's. Even Phil's moaning in the background lends itself to Led Zep's signature sound. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this song is a rip off in any way. It's a really HUGE sounding song in which they utilized their influences to perfection in creating the song. Again, Phil sounds like he's in pain singing this song. He gives a very believable performance. I get chills when he sings "
cut from a filthy cloth" and later in the song the lyric,
"playing Russian Roulette with a full chamber" is just icy.
Pillamyd, I feel takes a departure from the bluesy injection that the rest of the CD enjoys. This track lends itself more to full on Black Sabbath IMO, in fact it could have been churned out by the mighty Candlemass for that matter. I really like the slow grinding shift the song takes toward the end.
The length of the songs never bothered me at all. I'm just glad that you reviewed this because I probably would have never have given this a listen otherwise. I'm incredibly impressed with
DOWN and "Over The Under" on a whole. This CD just has a gigactic lumbering feel to it that I love. This is just quality dirty, bluesy, grinding metal that never fails to impress. It transports you to any dirt-floored, rank, stinking, smoke filled, southern bar loaded with leather clad bikers who would shatter your teeth with a pool cue if you looked them wrong.
Going back to the three tracks you brought up, I must say I changed my mind about Beneath The Tides. It does have a Candlemass sound about it that I didn't catch before.
As for <i>Mourn</i>, I was never really much of a Stone Temple Pilots fan, so maybe that's why I didn't get the same feeling about it that you did. But lyrically, it very well could be about Dimebag's death, as the title would indicate.
Pillamyd is the most aggressive of the three songs you refrenced, and I think it is pretty good. Still, it kinda sounds to me that Phil's voice struggles a bit in this song, mainly in the verse. The main riff is pretty good, but not as good as some of the one's in the first half of the album.
Anyway, I'm glad you found the review accurate. That's my main goal - to let you know what the album will sound like. Whether that sound is good or bad is much more subjective and leaves a lot up to personal taste.
At any rate, it's good to know that you bought the album and enjoyed it; that's the best part!
