Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Engineer - The Dregs (2007)

Sludge has become a difficult genre to pin down these days, mainly due to the influx of Neurosis worshipping bands pedaling their own interpretations. The problem here is that despite the "sludge" tag these new "atmospheric sludge" bands appear to have little in common with your EyeHateGods and Iron Monkeys. Engineer sit firmly in the former camp, with a particularly prevalent hardcore sound (and overall striking similarity to a lazy Cult Of Luna.)

And thats about all that really needs to be said for the album. It's a prime of example of "heard it all before". Fast paced, dissonant riffs with the a few odd time signatures and completely genericore vocals. While bands like Minsk and Baroness are pushing the envelope and Isis and Cult Of Luna are moving in subtly different directions, Engineer are positively stagnant. Infact, given the length of the songs I wouldn't query it if told this was an early Cult Of Luna demo. It's a punishing, unrelenting album no doubt, but utterly mediocre and unoriginal in every way. Unless you get a serious nob-on for anything remotely Neurosis, don't bother.

4/10

2 comments:

is this your life? said...

I heartily agree with your review :^:

Githzerai said...

Good good, glad its not just me being miserable.