I reckon most of you might be accustomed to the phrase “Jack of all trades, grasp of none.” A few of chances are you’ll even say the complete model is meant to observe up with “however higher than a grasp of 1,” although this can be a trendy addition, not a historic model. In music, issues aren’t so reduce and dry. With some bands, the main target introduced by doing one factor nicely serves the music higher; different artists appear to assume that the extra eclectic their influences the higher. Plaguewielder appears to be extra of a latter thoughts; looking out throughout the net reveals tags relating the band to sludge, black metallic, doom, atmospheric metallic, publish-metallic and so forth. However on their third outing, Covenant Death, is the Ohio quartet an actual jack of all trades?
Not precisely. Plaguewielder is a band with an id disaster. The lead guitar jangles, echoes and reverberates in a vogue that typically reminds of gothic metallic and typically of atmospheric black metallic, but regularly tries to deal with the melody in a extra conventional sense than such an outline would invoke. The drums can’t appear to make up their thoughts between loss of life metallic and industrial metallic, between free-flowing gallops and relentless staccato beatdowns. The bass is virtually subterranean, within the sense that it’s muddy and tough to search out with no shovel, and the rhythm guitars are so atmospheric they typically appear to neglect in regards to the idea of riffs completely. Worst of all are the vocals, which make use of the muscular throat-shout of hardcore or sludge and try to convey the type of harrowing temper that’s ordinarily the territory of black metallic. The end result sounds extra unhappy and annoyed than tormented, sadly.
Now, I’m all for mixing genres. I like bands that may mix sudden sounds and moods and make them work. However the extra dispersed the parts, the tougher to unify them, and although I query whether or not it was deliberate, Plaguewielder has picked polar reverse elements that don’t make sense collectively. The vocals have an aggressive texture that doesn’t gel with the principally semi-melancholic guitars and atmospheric layering, which in flip doesn’t get alongside when the drums transfer to overeager blasting. The manufacturing exacerbates the difficulty, with a flabby, muddy sound that homogenizes the guitars and bass whereas turning the amount up on the vocals and drums, with the latter particularly overpowering when the rhythmic nailgun begins firing spikes into your cranium.
As to keep away from this complete article being a complete downer, although, it must be mentioned that the band just isn’t completely devoid of expertise. Once they foregoe their tendency to attempt to do three various things without delay, there’s clearly traces of excellence to be discovered. “At Evening They Roam” has an amazing evil tremolo that swoops over the refrain, and the second half of “A Death That Is aware of No Finish” is definitely the spotlight of the album, with a number of layers of cascading guitars colliding in spectacular vogue. Different such sudden moments of stupendousness lay scattered throughout the album, however all of them require the vocals to be quiet, which they aren’t almost typically sufficient, and the drums not to enter overdrive, which they far too typically do.
So Plaguewielder are clearly not the jack of all trades they might have tried to be. Some parts conflict with others, the vocals are subpar for any fashion and the manufacturing appears to focus on the failings and muddle up their higher qualities. But there may be promise, deep down, often effervescent to the floor. If the band can determine their greatest elements, deal with them, and excise the poorer materials, there’s good, possibly even nice music of their future. Covenant Death is simply too bogged right down to get wherever close to, nevertheless.
Ranking: 2.0/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Dysfunction Recordings
Web sites: plaguewielderohio.bandcamp.com | fb.com/plaguewielderoh
Releases Worldwide: April 2nd, 2021