Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Postscrypt - Foreplay to Auralgasm (Demo) [Review]


I really don’t know what kind of genre would fit Postscrypt, and I don't mean this in a good way. It’s some type of metal, I guess, though it somewhat pains me to say it. Their 2011 demo (they should have a full-length out by now... good lord...) contains attempts at “extreme” metal (as in half assed understanding of what death/black metal is supposed to sound like), symphonic stuff and weird gothic/rock sections. That’s a lot of stuff, so what is it? I had to give them the benefit of the doubt and ask myself, is this something I'm just not getting? Is it progressive? No, not at all. None of the haphazardly composed and compiled ideas stick around long enough to really develop into full-sounding compositions, let alone be progressive. So I don’t know what this is, but I don’t like it.

The riffs and melodies here are pretty uninteresting and performed sloppily. I have no idea what the bass is doing, or if it’s in there. The drums are performed well enough to fit the songs and keep things moving, but there are some timing issues. The keys/symphonic elements are probably the most well-written and performed (probably programmed). Where things get really odd is the vocals. There are harsh vocals that sound like an old man wheezing to death, which is bad, but when the clean singing came in on the song “Ballerina” I laughed out loud. Yeah, for real. They sound like they’re supposed to be ‘gothic’ or brooding, but they are simply embarrassing. And the vocal melodies are either awkward or unmemorable. The titles of the songs and the EP as well as the lyrics range from absurd to generic.

I do not know what Postscrypt was trying to achieve with this release. Nothing here really fits together and none of the disparate elements really come into their own either. There’s nothing really passable here, move along.

Tex's rating: 25%
Check it out for yourself, if you must:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/s73ksmlnuylf8n5/Foreplay+to+Auralgasm.zip

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