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Gustav
Klimt was a painter who died in 1918, hence the rock group
Klimt 1918's moniker. According
to their website, some of the members once played in a progressive death
metal band, and considering that Edge of
Sanity, Katatonia and
Opeth are all named as bands
which the members enjoy, Klimt 1918
obviously know a thing or two about metal. However, the band play
alternative rock which sounds quite a lot like
U2. I'm having quite a lot of
trouble reviewing this album, because I know so little about the genre.
Alternative rock is a category into which any number of bands fall, and I
must admit that I would have trouble naming alternative bands, or even
describing what the style sounds like. I can't really offer comparisons, I
don't know what a good album of the genre is meant to sound like, and I'm
not familiar with the musical terminology to describe the group's
material. There's nothing here which I could call brutal, technical, raw,
intense or down tuned. In short, the adjectives that I am used to using in
order to gauge a band's performance have no meaning in this context. All I
can say is that if you enjoy some of that modern rock that usually gets
played on the radio, you should look out for
Klimt 1918's music. Perhaps if
you are looking for some relaxing easy listening you should do the same.
I can tell that Klimt 1918 are
good when it comes to composition. Each song is varied, and the band
avoids aimless meandering, while also staying out of the
verse-chorus-verse trap that most popular music succumbs to. It's also
pretty guitar-driven; you might even say that the guitars play a more
prominent role than the vocals. Of course, that's perfectly normal for
metal, but unusual for modern rock. Honestly, it's a bit of a misstep,
because their singer, who also does some of the guitars, has a great
voice. From a metal perspective, I like it just fine, but if I was a
mainstream critic I'd probably want the singer mixed higher. The lyrics
seem to be mostly in English, though the frontman switches to his native
Italian when he wants a bit of extra impact. I wonder whether this music
is popular in Italy - I could imagine some of it being played on American
radio, even though it's much more involved than most of the mindless tripe
which has kept me from turning on the FM over the past few years. From a
personal standpoint, I don't really enjoy the music, but I can tell that
it's well put together. As far as musicianship goes, this is not near the
same level as most metal bands. However, the band is tight and precise, so
they'll get a pretty good musicianship score. The mix, which I've
mentioned, is near perfect. It's really well done, and my only complaint
is that the vocals need to be more audible.
Though the band describe themselves as 'emotional and uncomfortable', the
average metalhead shouldn't find this too difficult. The thing is, however,
that the average metalhead probably wouldn't enjoy this stuff. I know that
I don't like it particularly. I tried to review this album from an
objective perspective, and I can tell that the band is very good at the
style they play. My personal opinion is that
"Dopoguerra" is dead boring. It was challenging for me to
listen to this once, not because it was overwhelming, but because it was
the opposite: I found myself getting distracted from the music and tuning
it out. I see it as little more than background music, but a modern rock
fan might think it was just about the most interesting thing they'd ever
heard. I just don't know, because as I have said, I don't understand the
genre. The best thing you can do is to look out for an mp3 sample of this
somewhere. If it's to your liking, check
"Dopoguerra" out. If not,
simply disregard all of this and listen to
Deeds of Flesh instead – I know
it's what I felt like doing.
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