WITHERED - Dualitas CD
Prosthetic Records
There's a Metal Forums site I visit every once in a while which has a post topic called "Bands Everyone Else Gets Into Except Me". My contribution to the post was adding WITHERED. I just can't get into em and trust me it's not for a lack of trying. I've seen them live twice and reviewed their two previous full lengths. I wasn't thrilled with either as opposed to all those in the metal media who were getting tingles up their legs from them. I'm serious, many of the reviews of their releases I read were like a creative writing class's thesaurus exercise in excess. You would read four paragraphs of bullshit and within there would be two sentences describing the music. I've always described WITHERED as kitchen sink metal and no that's not a new sub-genre. They pack so much into their sound as far as musical genres go plus the kitchen sink. I don't know if they're just adding a contribution from each band member or trying to please a wide audience variety. You've got your black metal for pussies who don't like traditional black metal and constantly whine about it. There's some death and grind thrown in for the long hairs in leather jackets at the back of the club. Finally there's the sludge because they are from Atlanta, Georgia and sludge is the new Indie Rock for hipsters. Plus they can also name drop WITHERED as their fave black metal band so they can look risque.
WITHERED seem to be more of a critic's band than anything else but I'm only going on what I've experienced seeing at their shows. The last time there were more people walking away from the stage then toward it. I don't think there was a bum rush for the toilet going on either. I actually felt sorry for WITHERED that night and stood there through their whole set and no I was not impressed. They even ended their set with some sour feedback probably to show their disgust at playing for fifty people while over two hundred were outside having a smoke, in the rain. Now why I keep trying to find something great to say about one of their releases is another story. Their latest, Dualitas, is another walk for me through the valley of shadows where I will not pay attention to any hipster bullshit at least not until I'm done with my review. My first reaction to this was holy shit they're trying to be a black metal band although more to the "post BM" side of the aisle. It's kinda like looking at a hipster guy's girlfriend and seeing that it's really a crossdresser. I know it's a guy in a dress, everyone in the bar knows it's a guy in a dress and probably the hipster guy knows as well. But he doesn't consider he's with a guy in a dress instead he's "post female". Now in no way am I implying that WITHERED are into crossdressers. I'm just trying to point out the fallacy (there's a pun) of the term "post" which actually means "not really".
Dualitas showcases WITHERED at a stage where they're moving away from the kitchen sink metal cacophony and expanding their creative forces in search for that plateau which has no bystanders but only musical individuals standing tall in their own identity. You know like every other bullshit "post" band out there. Yeah yeah, why don't I just take the CD out to the back yard and shoot it. Well I am a sadist by nature and Dualitas does have a few things going for it which saves it from eating hot lead. The opener "Extinguished with the Weary" starts off well with it's blackened death sound and screamed vocals but dies a doomster death by the end of it. INCANTATION they are not but it makes a perfect segue into the following cut "Residue in the Void" which showcases the band's artsy doom sensibilities which I find superficial. "Seek the Shrouded" is one of the better songs on here for it's sheer will to force some actual metal aggressiveness down the throats of the unsuspecting. A few decent doom standouts "From Shadows" and "Aethereal Breath" showcase the influence producer Phil Cope of KYLESA had on em when putting this release together. There's also an Interlude and an Outro on here which is like dumb and dumber. So that's three out of a possible six songs that I liked on here. I don't count the interlude/outro shit. So this dink is saved from getting a bullet in the back of the case. That's mainly what I've thought of their previous releases.
Label: http://www.prostheticrecords.com/
Myspace: http://myspace.com/withered
Official: http://www.withered.net/
SORRY NO VIDEO BUT THIS IS AS CLOSE AS IT GETS
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