It’s not all that often that you end up reviewing a CD after you’ve seen the band live several times, even when you go to as many shows as I do. At worst, if you see a band who happens to be good live, you check out the CD and then catch them again later on, just because it takes bands awhile to swing around again when on tour. When the band is locally-located though, they make the rounds just a bit more often. Why is the fact that you see a band live several times before reviewing the CD important? Well, in this case, it’s because as I listened to this CD, I recognized most of the songs from seeing them live. Now, lets make no bad assumptions here; I’d seen the band twice prior to listening to the CD. So being able to recognize tracks does provide some testament to the memorability of them.

As to the CD itself, well, before launching into that discussion, it’s important to have a touch of background information about this band. This band is, in fact, one person, with two instruments: drums, and guitar. Live, this is nothing short of highly entertaining, because while most people can’t manage the coordination to play just drums, much less drums and guitar simultaneously. When you describe it to someone, they’re immediately baffled. It seems impossible. But Shane of Via Vengeance seems to manage it just fine. Of course, when one person is playing two instruments at the same time, you can’t expect Meshuggah. The individual parts are all fairly simple. But what can you expect instead?

In the case of Via Vengeance, you can expect a combination of two styles really. The guitar riffing most often hails back to some of the nu-metal style riffing made popular in the 90’s, but more along the lines of Deftones than Limp Bizkit. The sound, however, is much sludgier and darker, and really seems more born of the post-metal movement. In particular, the vocal style mixed with the rest at times conjures Isis for me, not a shabby comparison. Obviously, a single man is not able to execute as effectively as a full band of five people, but the execution is not 4/5 times worse either. Where Via Vengeance differs from a typical post-metal band though is that while it’s heavy and moody, it’s not full of 8 minute epics. In fact, the longest song still clocks in at under six minutes. Perhaps the music is a little bit faster, but for the most part, the difference seems to come from a lack of over-repetition. Most post-metal CDs are tiring to listen to, both from the heaviness and the repetition, and while Dieography is not totally immune to that, the compression of 10 songs into a mere 37 minutes means that you can get through this CD and not be exhausted beyond belief.

Despite the variety inherent in the large number of tracks on the CD, the end result is not as prolific as it could be. The riffs in each song are different, but not so completely different that the CD doesn’t begin to feel a bit same-y towards the end. Like most post-metal CDs, it’s entirely possible to stop paying attention and lose track of what rack you’re listening to. The uniformity of sound is quite strong in the CD. In addition, the instruments were recorded live for the CD. While that is entirely respectable, as artists who can’t play their own music live are quite a disappointment, at the same time it’s a bit of a disappointment in its own right because you have to wonder what Shane could do compositionally if he weren’t limited by his lack of band mates.

Although the live show overpowers the CD (which it ought to for any good, heavy band, especially a one-man band), the CD holds its own weight quite effectively in the end.

Thursday, May 07, 2009
new review of dieography from az am radio station