With a name like the Gardnerz you’re more likely to expect some sort of hipster band from Dalston, really. With covers from Vulcano and Winter, however, I sense that this is not the case and approach this Swedish lot with about half the precaution I would have otherwise exercised.
This hour long record of doomish death comes in a sleek digipack and a rather professional booklet. The cover seems to feature some sort of ritual amongst monks, but I don’t know, man. The music on here is mostly quite tightly played/featuring good musicianship and the guitars and drums (a long-distance Chilean drummer) stand out. Unfortunately not much else does and it’s hard not to dump this into the endless mass of mediocre records. And I did try, you know, I really gave this one a chance, but regrettably there just isn’t anything positively outstanding here. We have the early death/doom elements from the obvious suspects, but too few ideas to make it interesting. What stands out negatively, however, is the boredom (I am a doom fan – so don’t even start). The worst of all, however, are easily the vocals. They are weak and all over the place. The mix doesn’t help these guys out either, as the production here is quite wanting. Not even the well-executed covers manage to save the day.
So what we have here is a mediocre album that runs out of ideas very quickly. The famous saying rings true once again: The only thing worse than a shit band is an average one; and this is bog-standard stuff. It’s not all bad though, as the sparks of good ideas are plenty and, though a lot of work and thought has to go into whatever is due next, I cannot deny a sense of potential. Keep on gardnin’!
http://www.myspace.com/thegardnerz
Miika Virtanen
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