Lacks something to separate it from countless others
Western Australia's The Uncreation have taken anti-Christian themes and the Cthulu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft as the inspiriation for their self-funded release Dreaming In R'Lyeh. My thoughts on this release can most eloquently be reduced to a single word; meh. Whilst I found little that I overly disliked, there was also little that I can say that I honestly enjoyed either. To me it sounded like a gazillion other black/death albums out there, with no trace of distinctiveness to make it stand out. Sure there are riffs here and there that are good, but on a release that spans 44 minutes, this is simply not enough.
Aside from the song writing itself, the biggest issue I have with this album is that it really isn't all that heavy. As far as I can tell it is a direct result of the drumming. Don't misunderstand; drummer Chaos plays his beats without fault, but it is his choice of beat that really lets things down. Aside from some decent blasts here and there, his style reminds me a lot of the drumming on a Burzum release - simplistic and unadventurous. My tip would be that even though the song may be riding along at mid tempo (as most on this release do), it doesn't mean that you can't cut in with a double time beat to help things along and add some intensity.
As it stands now, I don't see a particularly stellar future for The Uncreation. In saying that, I also get the feeling that the guys are dedicated to their music, and if this is the case then I hope that they work hard at refining their sound because if they don't then I fear they run the risk of being chewed up and spat back out again.
In the case of Dreaming In R'Lyeh, I'm going to give The Uncreation a score of 50% to reflect my position that I could equally take it or leave it. However as I write this, it occurs to me that I'm pretty sure I'll be doing the latter.
(Independant)
