When I read The Ladder‘s press release I was “wow, I must ear this. Amazing drumming, amazing riffs, amazing production, amazing record, amazing everything. Well, to good to be true. Never understood those press releases where they told us that everything is amazing and the best and whatever. I’ll be the judge of that, if I may…
We got eight tracks. Two interludes, so we got six tracks. Press play and we have the first interlude “Jezebel”. Skip.
The Ladder starts playing with “Close The Window”. Hmmm let’s see. Normally I would not comment the production of a new band first CD. But, since they let us know in advance how great the production is, let me say that I’ve heard demos with better production. The guitars are so muddy that the only thing we can understand is the palm muted chords. They must be playing marvelous things on the other strings but it’s all noise. The drums sound like plastic drums. Really “amazing production” indeed.
Let’s see the song. Coprofago comes to my mind as soon as this one starts. Those Meshuggah wannabe riffs are so old fashion by now. We have a solo section in the middle of the track. Never mind, that’s no solo. A ten year old could play that melody. Damn, I’m almost sure I had read that the guitars were “pretty technical”.
“Movement In The Treeline” is next in line. More Coprofago / Meshuggah wannabe riffs. Then comes the noisy part. The technical part that we can’t understand jack shit. Thank GOD “the production is amazing”, or else, how knows what I would be listening now. Probably static.
“And They Kept Whispering…” is another interlude. Great! Because you have few songs we have to listen to stupid interludes. “…Cycles…” follows. Oh no, more Coprofago stop-go riffs. How many riffs can you do holding just that power chord? The middle part is kind a cool tough. Then it just mellows out. Weird mix. Stop-go riffs with Primordial [black / folk / lol] ambiance. Then the noise returns. When I say noise I mean “amazing tech riffs”. That crystal clear production really helps.
OK, it’s almost done. “…Yet They Kept Plugged”. Why oh why?. This track has some violin – or sampled violin. That’s perfect. Math / noise / death / folk and now Celtic influences. I confess I didn’t see that one coming -_- “Failure” is next. It all makes perfect sense now. This ultra tech riff sounds like Biohazard in a bad hair day. This was the first track without that Coprofago riff in the beginning. Cool. To bad that I don’t like metalcore, otherwise this might be an average song.
The end of this “amazing record” [label’s own words, as all of my quotes] comes with “Recall”. Coprofago once again ehehe That’s great. Five tracks with the same beginning. That must be original in some way ^^. Well, this is the track that is available to download, and, lucky us, that is the nicest track.
Overall, this is not a bad effort for this new band. Take this review as a reminder that you are not as great as you want us to believe. I’ll wait for the new LP hoping you’ll be a little more honest and humble next time. Cheers!
P.S.: Very nice cover, by the way -_-
The Ladder – Recall
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