I'm currently sitting in a coffee shop, trying to plan out how I'm going to approach this review. Because I have a lot on my mind. People in the know about Column of Heaven, and this new full-length album, "
Mission From God", should know that this release has been swallowed in gargantuan amounts of hype and praise. Normally, no big deal, things like that don't usually get to me and challenge my opinion on an album. I usually just acknowledge that things get over blown in the press, and I'm usually very good at not letting stuff like that influence my own opinions(as it shouldn't with any critic). But, I'm gonna level with you guys; the first several times I heard this album, I didn't get it. Let me rephrase that, I didn't get why this album was getting all of this praise(I guess I still don't, read on). And honestly, this really bugged me, almost to the point of anger. Every one I talked to, every blog post I read, every review I've seen, has been positive. Extremely positive, actually. And it frustrated me because I think that "
Mission From God" is pretty undeserving of most of the things said about it. WAIT! Before you go spouting off in the comments about that statement, let me just preface the rest of this review by saying that I like this album. I think it's a good, enjoyable, powerviolence record, that has a few interesting ideas and utilizes them successfully. But that's the thing, to me, that's as far as I can go with it.
There's a few things that people might not know about this album going into it. The biggest detail of all, is that "
Mission From God" is a concept album of sorts. Not in that it tells a story, but the general theme of the lyrics is about the English serial killer, Peter William Sutcliffe, or "The Yorkshire Ripper". A man who in the late 60's to the early 80's brutally killed 13 women in Yorkshire, England. The lyrics, in a nutshell, reflect how Peter Sutcliffes actions effected the physical and psychological landscape of the city, and of a couple members of the band. The album in a whole acts as closure for the band members effected. You can read their actual statements
here, it's an interesting read. So yeah, it's an creative and pretty left-field concept for a powerviolence record, it's definitely more developed than your typical "album-about-a-serial-killer", I give it that. But I'm generally not one to concentrate on concept, and tend to focus more on the actual music, so let's talk about that.
The songs on here range from good, to great. They're all written well, performed well, and like I said before, utilize some interesting ideas and instrumentation. The sound of this album is rooted in metal-tinged powerviolence. I've heard people say it's "too metal", but I'm not hearing it, personally. Fan's of bands like Iron Lung, Extortion, and probably most obviously, The Endless Blockade, should find a lot to love here. However, that's as far as I can go again. The riffs on here are all pretty familiar for the genre, and the extra instrumentation is the most interesting thing this album has going for it, musically. The noise is fantastic, and it's orchestrated into the songs beautifully. The vocal manipulation in the 2nd half of "
The Devouring Grief" and the deep, harsh noise rumble in the song "
Entheogen" are do die for. Woodwinds and what sounds like Tuban throat singing is also used, which is definitely pretty cool But it's not like noise is anything new for powerviolence. It's been there since the genre started taking off, obviously with bands like Man Is The Bastard. Hell, I think I can say that most people into powerviolence have dabbled in noise/power electronics at some point. Which again makes me wonder why people are acting like this album is breaking new ground for the genre, it's not! I've read some articles where this is called a "smart powerviolence album". Why? Is it because of the concept? Is it because of the noise? News flash, noise and flutes don't make an album smart. Im my opinion, all the hype about this album makes it seem pretty pretentious. Which is a word I rarely, if ever, use when I'm talking about powerviolence or grindcore. Aside from that, the production isn't really to my liking, particularly when it comes to the drum tones, and the vocals don't have a whole lot of power or forcefulness to them. I guess in closing, I'm just trying to understand why people think this album is "smart" or "groundbreaking". I'm not trying to get people to stop loving this album, I'm just asking for some more definition. Good album.
Rating: 7/10
~VII
