This week’s are some solid albums, but as you can tell before you even listen (because of the sidebar —>) we weren’t exactly blown away. That doesn’t mean we didn’t think they were good! It just means that they though they, largely, needed a little more. But don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself. Listen to the reviews, that is…which I would be to take word for it… Ya know what? Nevermind. Just listen the to show.
Reviews: Darkest Hour –Darkest Hour (Sumerian); Entombed A.D. – Back to the Front (Century Media); Mutilation Rites – Harbinger (Prosthetic); Omnihility – Deathscapes of the Subconscious (Unique Leader)
Mutilation Rites – Harbinger
Darkest Hour – Darkest Hour
Entombed A.D. – Back To the Front
Omnihility – Deathscapes of the Subconscious
The Sideshow Podcast 
Summer Slaughter at Irving Plaza this past Friday was good, but it wasn’t something that you’ll regret missing. I missed the first 4 bands because it starts at 3pm on a weekday, and unfortunately two of those bands I missed were Fallujah and Within The Ruins. Both of those bands I would have liked to have seen and I was a little surprised that they were playing so early. I caught half of Decrepit Birth’s set and it wasn’t enough to make an impression on me. Origin was next and they were quite good. Their front man did a good job engaging with the crowd, and the guitarist was good but my only complaint was that the guitar was quite low in the mix and a bit drowned out by the bass and drums. Goatwhore came on and lived up to expectations, which for me means they also didn’t blow anyone away. Then I found a seat on a couch and grabbed a beer upstairs at Irving Plaza when Thy Art Is Murder came on. Thy Art is Murder did their crabcore thing. I thought that went out of style a few years ago. Then The Faceless were decent but a little disappointing (which I’ll explain why in a moment). Dying Fetus crushed it, and Morbid Angel was ok but I didn’t stay until the end of their set. Overall I think this year’s version of Summer Slaughter suffered from having too many similar bands. And even the bands like The Faceless that had some slightly different sounding songs didn’t play those in their set. The Faceless played pretty much only their more death metal style songs as opposed to anything proggy or tech-y or even much with clean singing. I realize that Summer Slaughter’s raison d’etre is death metal and that they got a little bit of criticism last year from not having enough death metal bands, but this year’s tour definitely could have benefited from some good contrasting band in the lineup.
So how was the Cynic show?
It is surprising that they put Fallujah and Within The Ruins on so early in the day. Maybe its just my preference in order, but I would think that either of those bands are more relevant than Thy Art Is Murder or (in my book) Decrepit Birth.
Also, bummer that The Faceless catered to the audience so much. As you said, I get why they did, but they have enough range they could have kept it plenty heavy while offering up a welcoming break from what every other band was doing. You would think they’d wanna mix some of those songs into the set just to stand out a bit and make themselves more memorable. To some it might be memorable in a bad way, but I have a feeling most people would have welcomed it.
I didn’t make it to Cynic. I’m still bummed.