Totaled - Lament

Usually when it comes to writing these, I feel like a little (or not so little) preamble about the context of a release really helps get things going, but I also tend to get really caught up in doing that, so with more albums coming out that I want to write about I’m trying to streamline that aspect and others at least a little bit. And Lament by Totaled here lends itself well to being a streamlined discussion rather well, and that’s not a good thing. Sure, if we’re talking about a band that usually shits the bed with each successive release who managed to do a less shitty job than usual, perhaps a quick discussion is a good sign. But for a band debuting on a reputable underground label, trying to make that crucial first artistic statement, ignorable context is most likely not a good sign. But as far as the context of Lament goes, I know it’s this band’s debut album, and that’s it, because the content here did not spur me to dig into it’s context, which I highly doubt would change my perception of it. Anyway! I said I was going to streamline my thoughts here, and I will do that, starting now. Lament is kind of a predictable release from the Profound Lore record label, a label I have come to really appreciate as one of my favorites, but this album strikes me in much of the same way Vanum’s Ageless Fire and Pissgrave’s Posthumous Humiliationearlier this year did, which is lots of focus on the dark, eclectic metal atmosphere and aesthetic, and less on the substance. Profound Lore definitely has a general abysmal aesthetic that they curate, but releases like this really seem to do more to reinforce that label aesthetic than to establish a band’s unique sound. I know it sounds probably like I hate this album, but I really don’t think it’s all that bad. It’s just not special nearly as frequently as it needs to be. I like the momentous exiting bridges of both “Eclipsed” and “Hypnosis”, and the grand solo of “Bereft” (the finale of which finds the production finally sounding supportive), for example, but for most of the album’s 36 minutes, it drowns itself out in an unfortunately generic haze of blackened death metal and sludge whose white-washing production does its lack of ideas no favors. It’s a decent debut, and one that certainly shows the band as capable of doing more, but they do need to prove their worth on whatever comes next for them.
It doesn’t suck/10

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