My mate Lee has coined a phrase for this sort of music, when he was shaking his head ruefully while we watching an Annotations of an Autopsy gig. It’s “meathead metal”, and it means music that lacks much imagination beyond just adrenaline and shouting. Of course, that’s a bit harsh since we can’t expect every band to sound like Mastodon or Porcupine Tree. But even allowing for the fact that there are times you’re just as happy with a wank as you would be sex with Angelina Jolie after you’ve both injected Viagra into your privates, ‘On Broken Foundations’ is akin to slapping round a semi while watching re-runs of Natasha Kaplinsky doing that dancing thing.
The trouble with this album is not that it’s especially bad. It’s just so damned dull, especially without the kind of savagery that buoys up AOAA. Instead, it’s all mid-paced and won’t sound dangerous to anyone, except those who have had the good fortune to wake up after a thirty year coma. And even then, you could spot the breakdowns and riff changes from your hospital bed. And then probably lapse into another coma. Let’s take the track ‘Sickening’ as our inspiration. It moves through the gears smoothly enough, but there’s not really any sense of excitement here, it’s just someone shouting over the top of some extremely generic call and response riffing.
It’s a shame, however, as vocalist Aaron actually has a pretty good set of vocal techniques at his disposal; but yet again, the perennial problem rears its head. The techniques and execution is good, it’s just you’ve heard it all before. ‘The Burden of Knowledge’ could very well be ‘Weakness In The Chain’, if it wasn’t for the fact they had different titles. ‘Self Righteous’ is perhaps emblematic of PP: it’s slightly off the pace you’d expect, and it lacks the punch you’d like. It has to be said that the title track does have a groovy little riff that has echoes of Pantera. But then again, why not listen to them instead? Perhaps the next album will have the anger and viciousness it needs, but for now it looks as though this is yet another generic and average record that will excite few who can buy their own booze.
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