Death-doom isn’t the most instant of genres – most of the time I’d insist on giving an album several listens before reviewing to allow it to grow on me, although can usually tell fairly early on if an album is something really special. Madness Of My Own Design has had some rave reviews on various other sites I frequent, and sadly after a good 7 or 8 spins, I just don’t see why.
Opening track ‘Dagon’ draws in at a sluggish pace setting the general tone for the album and it’s a particular sound that anyone familiar with Solitude’s roster will recognise and at least find some comfort in the familiarity. ‘Gates’ reminds me quite a bit of Paradise Lost with the oppressive guitar tone – musically this is slow and crushing and has a dark, rather soothing melody. ‘I Come With The Rain’ opens with a minimalist guitar before it all kicks in; the solitary sounding guitar repeats itself continually and runs through at times creating a nice atmosphere. This certainly isn’t a bad album; there’s nothing wrong with the music and as far as death-doom goes it ticks all of the right boxes…and perhaps that is the problem. It doesn’t do much more than that. For me, this just conforms to the rule book just a little too much and I’d rather see a band bend those rules a bit and have a bit more individuality. As such, this seems to plod along for 54 minutes at a soporific pace (which is admittedly handy if you’ve run out of sleeping pills, although not so good when it sends you dozing at 2 in the afternoon), and with hardly any variety.
The album ends on a good note with ‘One Way For Burning’ which has a majestic undertone sweeping up from below. For a while things begin to plod along until it eventually gets an interesting shake-up. It’s important to point out that The Sullen Route are a young band and this is their first album which means there is plenty of time for them to discover their own sound and to improve. As I said, this isn’t a bad album it’s just rather dull and uninspired and they do have the right ingredients there to build on if they can work on their songwriting for future releases. The vocals are an intense death growl, which works well, the musicians can all evidently play their instruments which is more than can be said for a lot of bands, and they have a decent sound – it’s just a bit too generic. One for death-doom enthusiasts only.
http://www.myspace.com/thesullenroute
