It’s been four years since Galder, brought us last album ‘Vermin.’ This is hardly surprising as on joining Dimmu Borgir he has been occupied with many a high profile tour even if they are not the most prolific band in the world when it comes to releasing albums. Before he joined them he was releasing an album every year and a half or so and must have been itching to get back and prove that Old Man’s Child were still very much an ongoing concern. With the new album we have Peter Wildoer (Pestilence, Darkane) taking up drumming duties and a Fredrik Nordström production so it should be business as usual with these nine new songs right?
Well the sceptic in me says not quite! This has not got the pace and ferocity of previous opuses and I do have the entire back catalogue and found this a bit of a disappointment on the whole. I am kind of left wondering if this album was brought out and put together out of necessity for the reasons mentioned above. Perhaps Galder really does not have time to fully concentrate on OMC whilst with Dimmu Borgir, although having said that other members of the group have their own side projects too, but on the whole I am just not feeling it with ‘Slaves Of The World.’ The title track comes in with that winding guitar sound and a mid paced groove about it; rasps join in but it feels very much like a case of going through the motions. There is no stand out chorus here certainly not for a title track and the keyboards are notable on the whole for their absence. Perhaps it’s a case of having been spoilt by Dimmu Borgir who are without doubt top of their league when it comes to orchestral black metal but this has the feel of a redundant project about it and a wholly formulaic one too. We do get keyboards pushed up to the front of ‘The Crimson Meadows’ but they sound as ghastly as the song title itself and are off key and out of time, perhaps this is the intention but they kind of irritate like fingernails down a blackboard.
The real problem here, despite repeated listens trying my best to get into this, is that nothing really stands out; there is nothing particularly memorable about it. ‘Path Of Destruction’ has a military two-step march before it starts and at last the neo-classicist keyboard flow here harks back to older songs but it lacks the strength of songs from albums such as ‘Ill Natured Spiritual Invasion’ and ‘Revelation 666.’ The fact that next track is entitled ‘The Spawn Of Lost Creation’ also strikes as somewhat prophetic. There are moments that this promises, the keyboard part with low sinister growls behind it on ‘Ferden Mot Fienden's Land’ adds a bit of a spark as does the acoustic start on last number ‘Servants of Satan's Monastery’ (ooh prime cheese), but on the whole this is a really frustrating album and one where I am aware the words ‘could do better’ would be scrawled on it big letters in red ink if this were a piece of school homework. Even the end where the last track simply fades out strikes as a complete anti-climax and I doubt I am going to be rushing out to get this and put it on the shelf next to the other albums; a shame.
http://www.myspace.com/officialoldmanschild
http://www.centurymedia.com/
