A MURDER OF CROWS

Well, a bit of hype and pedigree and a quick listen to the MP3 "Why" off this site and I thought I'd pick this one up. I feel a bit of balance in the reviews is justified for this one. A rating of 3 is generally appropriate. Good, but non-essential. Vocally and dynamically this is Tool and A Perfect Circle all over with a bit of an alternative rock influence. It's where these influences are less obvious that I start to hear something more interesting. The drums are busy, intentionally apparently, but sometimes to the detriment of the feel of the song. It seems a bit one-dimensional in the guitar department for me (the second guitar seems to be there for the live situation and doesn't provide a different 'flavour' to the songs). The guitar riffs are occasionally memorable, but many repeat and meander, somewhat reminiscent of Fates Warning's later work (I don't really rate Jim Matheos as a 'rifftastic' writer) and like FW I find myself liking the quieter atmospheric stuff on this more. I really like the "Why?" song from the next album, so I may pick that one up somewhere in the future, but not straight away. That's not to say that this album isn't worth a listen, I've removed 4 out of the 12 songs from my iPod after only a few days, but will be enjoying the remainder for some time.