Canada unleashes another Lamb of God-loving metal band upon the world; this one is called Odium. Not the most original name around (naming rights in the originality department is usually relegated to some unpronounceable word that’s derived in some way of something like Succubus or Netherworld or Bloodguzzler or whatever), they have no difficulty living up to that value prejudice by delivering fare best described as standard issue—never a compliment for the radical noise and pomposity of death metal. This death metal is, of course, tempered with cleaner melodies than usual, a style beloved by roughly three hundred groups of the ilk hailing from Sweden (Soilwork, In Flames, etc.). Maybe the cold air affects something in these songwriters.
The actual performance leans towards the commendable. Andrew Fullerton and Bo Louther wind their churning guitars together well, though they lack the divergent interplay that could have set them apart. And Joe Mullen and Dale Burrows are even tighter with the rhythms, especially on “Population Zero” and the pummeling epic “Need to Exist.” But on the songwriting side, there’s not much here to really sink the teeth into. On the first listen, there wasn’t a single song that didn’t simply flit out of the brain the moment they barreled into the next track. There’s too little urgency gleaned from the songs beyond tempo cues; the melodies are richer than usual, but they’re not interesting melodies. Metal has always been music of the moment, but the failure to linger is one of the chief faults. Sure, it’ll fill the background of most any metalhead, but since when has that ever been a headbanger band’s goal?
Thomas Emmans’ vocals help somewhat, especially when he raises the register and sings with regal melodrama—any accusation of affectation disappears because you’re happy for the break from the chugging growl that’s all too commonplace these days. The album’s midsection benefits from this direction most—“At the Bottom” and “The Failure” even have brief snippets worth revisiting after the disc runs its course. Unfortunately, its implementation seems born from triviality more than maximum impact—should all successes sound so accidental? It doesn’t help that the lyrics are mostly a batch of trite phrases, wallowing and clichéd. “Rising from our bridges/There will be nothing else/Just ashes and tyrants/I’ll watch the smoke block out the sun,” Emmans howls on “Need to Exist.” And on “It Goes Cold”: “Put the locust in a syringe/Everything’s plagiarized/Every urge a sin/My life is a consequence now…A breach in the walls of paradise may be the last thing we all know/I’ll tear every feather from your wings and smell your skin as it goes cold.” You get the idea.
Attempts to punch holes in the tenacious repetition aren’t cleverly integrated. The title track is inflated by strings and closes in static, “Serenity’s End” flushes with electronics, an eerily somber synth bleed opens leadoff “Oblivion’s Gates,” and so on. Not only are these efforts rather shallow, but they don’t really break anything up. Only the prog-metal ambition of the impressively mounted but ultimately unspectacular “Need to Exist” and the acoustic guitar passages on the penultimate track, “The Abyss Stared Back,” seem to strive for breaking the mold, but both come at the very end, and even the latter eventually folds its hand and settles on a smoothly distorted guitar riff before melting into a stew of overearnest piano keys.
Considering the volume and tuning, it’s hard to believe that At the Bottom could frequent the territory of blasé as much as they do. It’s an album of virtually no highs or lows, just a series of fast, thrashing guitars, double bass kicks, tom tom abuse and vocal lurches between gravelly yelping and porcelain rafter soaring. The only reason to reach for the skip button is because you want something different, but different is not Odium’s specialty. For all of the attempts at novel (and mostly superfluous) flourishes, the formula is either an inescapable tedium or the limit of the band’s powers. Let’s hope not—they seem to have the individual ingredients for a worthy metal outfit—but no matter where it was aimed, At the Bottom winds up settling somewhere in the middle.
"At the Bottom" is on sale March 31, 2009 from Year of the Sun.
