Band: City of the Lost
Title: At The Edge
Genre: Atmospheric rock, instrumental, metal, progressive rock, alternative, post-metal, post-rock
URL: http://cityofthelost.bandcamp.com/album/at-the-edge
Band introduction: There is not much information that I could find. Their Facebook page says, “It’s started around at the late of 2010… And it goes on today… Nothing else.”
1st Listen: It is a quiet (so far) day at work and I am using that time to run through the list of promoters at The Unsigned Guide (.com) so I am prepared to start booking gigs for my band. What better time to throw on some music. Well City of the Lost has all the right ingredients, but the wrong recipe. I yawned my way through that. If I’d not been doing something constructive whilst listening I would be getting in contact with the band to see how they could compensate me for my time.
It should have been good. They tick off my favourite genres and some of the ideas are there, but it just does not deliver. I want to feel something when I listen to music; this felt like an extended set of jams. Where are the dynamics? Where are those moments that make this sort of music appealing?
I certainly could not find them.
2nd Listen: “A Coming Storm” Starts off great, but quickly goes downhill; more a light shower than a storm. Upbeat melody lines and some classic rock riffs; these guys need some vocals. It just does not hold it’s own as an instrumental.
I heard better production before that is for sure! “The Nightingale” is a bit more post-rock than the previous track, but some of the parts feel thrown together last minute. It is 3 minutes to long as well (I’m being generous).
Omen, Pt.1 (TempleKeepers) is not too bad. It has some nice parts here and there, and some cool little build ups.
“Back to the Future”, what the hell? Some sort of Ho Down (???) is going down here. Country plinky plonky and then a classic rock solo. What the hell were they thinking? How did this make the album? Shall I just press stop now?
Thank God that is over. Let us get a Flanger pedal to bring this album back. That’s not going to work guys! “Rise as One” is better than “Back to the Future”; marginally.
“86 Days of Despair”. More like 5 minutes 49 seconds of me wanting to rip my ears off. Actually there are some nice parts in this track. They need to lose the pinch harmonics though; they are not My Dying Bride.
“Basilisk” is all right, the strongest track on the album so far. It has crunchy guitar work throughout and some nice double bass drumming going on. It out lives its welcome though.
Omen Pt.2 (The Stargazer) has some cool parts too, but I’m over it by now. Do I really need to listen to this again?
3rd Listen: I started to enjoy this briefly and wondered if I had put on the wrong record. It did not last long and I was suddenly reminded why this album fails. It comes down to poor composition, I think. There are some nice ideas but their execution and placement among the poorer ideas stops those ideas from really shining. In a world where any man and his dog can record music and get it heard on the Internet I can forgive some of the poor production choices. Ultimately the band fails to interest me enough to give them any more of my time.
Conclusion: A poorly conceived album that’s bad parts outweigh the good. There are much better examples of this type of music. I would suggest leaving well alone.
- First Impression: Bad
- Final Impression: Indifferent
