German four-piece Ashes of Pompeii describe themselves in their PR material as 'indie post-hardcore' and already I'm lowering my expectations. Does the musical world really need
yet another of these bands? Their record label seem to think so, so we'll push on and see what's in store on their new album
The End Begins Tomorrow.
From the outset this all sounds so very familiar. As in I've already heard this exact same thing for the last four or five years, and it's getting old. Don't get me wrong – Ashes of Pompeii are actually pretty good at what they're doing here, but it's so very 'by the numbers' that any whiff of original thought is totally obscured. Take the opening track,
This Is The Split, for example; if you heard this in a club and someone asked you who it was, you'd probably reel off the names of a dozen bands and never get it right. It's vaguely reminiscent of early Killswitch Engage, but minus the edge.
The guitar work is solid but never stands out. The vocals are competent but entirely generic (half low-down growls half high-note soars). The strongest track on the album is probably
Collapse//Collide, which at least delivers an interesting melody and one of the few sections of fretwork where I actually looked up from my cup of coffee to clock the name of the song.
Ashes of Pompeii have at least attempted to break the monotony of this album with interspersed instrumentals and voice-overs here and there, but rather than coming across as quirky or interesting it feels pretentious and pointless- as if the listener would actually give a toss about the bands pseudo-sociological banter. We also have the obligatory 'attempt at soulful' tracks such as
Sometimes Friendships Can Be Murder – but as with so many of the tracks on this album it just bleeds into the others. The title track,
The End Begins Tomorrow, comes at the end of the album and is at least a passable effort although it relies heavily on that post-hardcore staple, the angsty emotional chorus. In fact that could be said for every track on here – they all feel like window dressing around a chorus which you just heard on the previous song.
If it sounds like I'm coming down a bit hard on Ashes of Pompeii then that's because I'm rather annoyed at just how dated this album sounds. It's 2007, almost nobody cares about this kind of music any more and anyone who does is already spoiled for choice. Plenty of other bands are already out there, doing this music better. I wouldn't object to hearing this band play a support slot for one of the bigger acts mind you, as they at least have the energy of youth going for them. All in all though they suffer badly from their songs all ending up sounding the same, and that sound is somewhat benign to begin with. I don't expect I'll be listening to Ashes of Pompeii again – or perhaps I will, but I won't even notice. This is white noise.
The End Begins Tomorrow is released on September 24th.
http://www.myspace.com/ashesofpompeii
