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I
wish I had better news, but I am afraid this one bore me to
death. Press surrounding this British act is overwhelmingly
positive. Not that I get hyped by all that stuff, but hey, don’t
blame for being interested. I get that the doom genre is
stretching its rhythmic spacing to ridiculous lengths; but for
fuck’s sake, do people ever give bad reviews to doom bands
anymore? It seems as if ever since Pitchfork started covering
the stuff, we all got our earplugs and started bobbling our
heads like fuck dolls on a dashboard to absolutely anything with
a heartbeat. Anyway, Atavist is picking up steam by being linked
to some hip muthas; starting with the endorsement of great bands
like SunnO))) and Khanate and going to their present
collaboration with antiquary, musicologist, poet and etc. etc.
Julian Cope. Not only that, but Atavist have also managed to get
the attention from Portishead’s Geoff Barrow (if Dummy
isn’t one of the one hundred and seventy-five best records ever,
then fuck Elvis) who has recorded II : Ruined, their
second effort.
II : Ruined
is powerful alright. Let me get that clear. And at times,
especially once the stuff gets going but it takes for fucking
ever, is
pretty great, but the record opens with a track that’s basically
inexistent. Doom wasn’t ever supposed to be fun but this is just
ridiculous. Three minutes and twenty-one seconds of a cruel
intention, the track that could have been but that’s almost not
there. You can almost hear your life passing by. It does not
exist. Atavist make excruciating and grueling music, and the
long ass second cut (“17:01”) here clearly establishes that.
Atavist is the type of band that bangs away at everything once
every ten seconds; its disturbing experimental noises in the
background only make the music more challenging. I am a fan of horror, that’s for sure. That is why I am so
surprised, I could never get off on the most disturbing aspects
of II : Ruined. The production is great; the tones are
marvelous, sludgy as all mud. The third track proves that Barton
is a master at his craft and has helped Atavist reached its more
appropriate shape. I am just not all that convinced, and more
importantly I am kind of bored. And I am a very patient man.
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