There can be no complaints here on the quantity front. The two cds total about 82 minutes, so there’s plenty to go at from this Austrian band. Or is there? Ekpyrosis have been around since 1988 and seem to have a very definite idea of what they want to produce.
I was varnishing a door when I first listened to “All You Can Eat”. A really good album would have stopped me in my tracks, and my mundane everyday task would have had to wait. Instead of this, I finished the door and the first cd finished too. It’s a moderately pleasant enough piece of largely mid-paced classic rock/metal, influenced by Metallica I’d say, but I couldn’t recall a single outstanding moment on any of the 8 competent songs. Listening to it, there are some complex arrangements, notably on “Earth-Bound”, while “Yellow Eyes” is livelier, and there are some decent riffs, but it mostly lacks drama. There an engaging eccentricity on “See You Again”, but I am struggling to identify any real highlights.
I approached the second cd (or Side B as it’s called) with some trepidation after the absence of reaction to the first one. Again there are 8 decent songs. This time it was more memorable, mainly thanks to the dominant melodic riffs of the first two tracks, “Addicted” and “Madhouse”. ”Addicted” has a good build up and a solid riff, but the album finally burst into life with “Madhouse” which sets off at a breakneck pace and has great energy and power. The singer, who sounds like a cross between Axl Rose and John Lydon, clearly has a message for us in it. Unfortunately it’s back to dreary, mid-paced stuff after that with the exception of a nice creepy sound behind the riff on “Like Master, Like Man”. Then, finally, came a track I really liked. “Dear Sophie” is a bit of slushy one, but with its flutes, an impressive acoustic beginning and its shadowy lyrics it has a more human atmosphere than its predecessors. Maybe this is the direction the band should be going in, rather than sounding like no-one or everyone (or Griffin, the band I thought they sound most like). Unfortunately even on “Dear Sophie” the singer’s voice is too harsh for the mood so even that didn’t entirely work. The album ended with another good solid rock track “Release Me From Your Spell” which went beyond the norm and featured another creepy sound as we had heard earlier on “Like Master, Like Man”.
Having listened to this album closely, I can recognise some tight song structures, chunky riffs and some nice guitar work in general. Maybe a reviewer who is closer to this genre will find more in “All You Can Eat”. It’s not bad and the cover artwork is provocative but musically it’s neither dynamic or for the large part interesting. My reaction after hearing it was to go off and listen to Soilwork. I needed some action and it wasn’t on “All You Can Eat”.
http://www.ekpyrosis.com
http://www.myspace.com/ekpyrosismusic
