SikTh’s Opacities Album Review
November 16, 2016, at 5:18 p.m.
OK, this review of the new SikTh album was supposed to come out about two weeks ago, but I had a serious problem. The music from the most recent album (out December, 2015), Opacities, seriously took root in my brain and I had to listen to it over and over. But that wasn’t all. There was something else that was (is) really gnawing at me.
While Opacities is a near flawless prog metal album, it struggles to find its vocal identity. I hate to single out one member of the band, but unfortunately this is the case for Opacities. The vocals at times are amazing on this short EP, and at other times I can’t find (what we used to call) the fast forward button quickly enough.
Track four, “Tokyo Lights,” was an instant “fast forward,” and eventually it was deleted from the album all together. In fact, you should delete it, too. It falls right in the middle of the record and instantly draws me out of the heavy guitars, sick drumming and wicked arranging.
Two other egregious instances of the vocals distracting from the overall album are found in the tracks “Philistine Philiospies” and “Walking Shadows.” Let me say first, I absolutely LOVE track 2 “Philistine Philiospies.” This is a modern masterpiece of metal and the play count on my iTunes has been skyrocketing well into double digits over the past few weeks.
There is “playing a track into the ground” and then there is playing into the ground, digging it up, rolling it over and “fucking it to death.” The latter is how I feel about this track. There are some extremely powerful clean vocals and the growling vocals really mesh together with the instruments in a powerful way…
Then at 2:30 minutes into the song, there is a bridge that sounds Bobcat Goldwaithe is doing half-assed open mic poetry. What the bleeding’ fuck was that?! I am instantly pulled out of my metal induced coma and scratch my head. Did your mom ever walk into you room when you were having a wank, and just before you cross the finish line she kills your momentum? That’s pretty much what happens here every time.
The exact same thing happens on Walking Shadows as well. It is an amazing track, with interesting songwriting, first class production and real originality. Then at 3:21, once again on the ethereal bridge of the composition, we are greeted to a contrived tirade in the vocals.
“Don’t you think it will be more fun than a world of bubblegum?” I literally have to wince every time I hear this part, and wonder again to myself, ‘What the fuck were they thinking?’ While fully immersed in the music and the world it has created in my head phones, all of a sudden I am ripped away a doused with a bucket of ice water.
Opacities is a fan funded album and well worth for you to purchase. While released in 2015, it serves as a teaser trailer to the banner year that 2016 would become for progressive metal. With full-length featured albums by Circus Maximus, Dream Theater, and Haken just to name a few, the addition by SikTh falls right into line.
Buy a copy of the record today and support live music. Or don’t and let corporate buying power and American Idol knockoff style TV shows force feed you 2:00 pop songs down your throat, the choice is yours.
And this choice is and always will be the same one that every generation faces: Are you fucking METAL, or not? SikTh has made their choice, now make yours.
#metal
