Back to the band
Prev album
 |
|
| Type | Album |
| Year | 1996 |
| Genre | Rock |
| Style | Prog, Krautrock |
Orginally, I didn't really care about this one. I don't know, the cover seemed to me especially uninteresting, and the only song I knew - "Dark Matter" was kinda enough for me. Don't get me wrong, it's a banger of a song, but somehow I haven't even thought about listening to the full album. One time I've given it a listen, and some songs were ok, but bruh it felt like the longest album I've ever heard... It's been only recenlty that I finally started to appreciate it.
The record features a very dark, dubby, krautrock atmosphere, that emerges from the samples, extremely prominent rhytm section and very different, more stripped down approach to guitar parts! In previous albums, we had songs upon songs of riffing, soloing and stuff. Although it has already began on "The Sky Moves Sideways" album, here we can see it more clearly: PT are now more of an atmosphere-focused band rather than a guitar focused band. And it will continue to the later albums!
Also, this is a very Colin-centered record for me. The basslines are what sticks out the most about songs like "Idiot Prayer", "Waiting" and the outro section of "Every Home is Wired". It's a great record to appreciate his craftsmanship, cause he and his basslines will fall into the obscrurity in PT's later works.
A mildly unintetesting "Bornlivedie" which serves as the album's opener, quickly changes into the angry and crazy "Signify" - one of the band's first attempts into the area of metal-adjacent music. The song must've sounded sooo sick live! It's moshable, headbangable and very tight. Tho I'm curious how many people actually know that it is defacto a cover, or rather a rework of the song "Hallogallo" by the German Krautrock band NEU!. If you listened to "Insignificance" EP, you might've noticed that... "The Sleep of no Dreaming" is another fantastic song. I very much enjoy it's lyrics and the melody. The two-parter "Waiting" is a nice little tune, but I can't remember how the second part actually sounds... "Sever" on the other hand, is such a heavy BANGER!! The guitar sound is full and angry and the lyrics are mysterious and weird (one can fairly point out that they feel somewhat edgy and uninspired...but I like them!). The song "Every Home is Wired" grown on me quite a lot. The chord progression just feels sooo satisfying, and the sublime space-rocky outro is simply phenomenal... And again, very fun lyrics. Now that I think about it, it's their first album with prominent, meaningful and interesting lyrics! Let's not forget about the krautrocky-trancey dub psych monster of "Idiot Prayer", which is so danceable, that I imagine it might as well play on a rave (a nerdy one, but still). And of course, there's the fan favorite "Dark Matter" with it's remarkable guitar work. Both riffs and solos are great and extremely memorable. The same can be said about the lyrics...
It's a much better record that I remember. So many interesting songs! And they sound even more mighty on the live shows. They played quite a wide array of "Signify" songs during their FOBP era, and they all sound very powerful and energetic. In conclusion, do not overlook this album. You'll be missing on really interesting stuff...