Band's List Doom Black Dot Dot Dot Somebody Save Me

I've heard many ridiculous band names in my lifetime, but the completely off the wall, internet unfriendly moniker that defines this Turkish band has to be taking it to new heights of absurdness. I however never let a bands name affect my opinion on the music they create, but with a name like … it makes it exceedingly difficult to take them seriously. It’s a shame really that the band has the misfortune of being bogged down by such an absurd name as the music on show is pretty serviceable really. Somebody Save Me is pretty standard depressive black metal but it’s effective nonetheless.

The guitars are the main driving force behind the music. They’re heavily distorted and are quite effective in portraying a fervent and emotional atmosphere. Some of the riffs carry a faint influence from the shoegazing side of the spectrum, allowing the guitars to fabricate a fairly emotional wall of sound. It’s fairly depressing and creates a fairly powerful instrumental front. On the other hand I would have liked to have seen more diversity integrated into the music as unfortunately it can begin to wear thin. The music has the misfortune of not having enough weight behind the compositions; it renders the music quite boring. Much of the music on Somebody Save Me come and go without leaving much of an impact, making it really hard to connect with the music in a meaningful way. The music reeks of apathy and disinterest, none of the music ideals have been fleshed out and overall Somebody Save Me feels far too constricted by genre conventions. It has the effect of creating an extremely detached listen that takes significant difficulty to actually form a meaningful emotional connection to.

It’s disheartening to see the quality that Somebody Save Me possesses as some of the ideas are fairly solid. The vocals in particular are really quite good, very agonized and tortured sounding. I think they’re produced really well, not being too loud to bury all other instruments within the mix. However they do feel one dimensional, as unfortunately the same technique is utilised throughout the duration of the album. With the bland instrumental front it falls unto the vocals to carry most of the music’s emotional weight. This of course means that the music often falls flat onto its face as the general atmosphere is far too detached and apathetic to allow the music to achieve anything worthwhile. Somebody Save Me does hint at a faint degree of potential for this young band but overall none of the ideas have been worked upon enough. It renders the music one dimensional and aesthetically bland. Whilst several aspects of the core musicianship are pretty solid, there just isn’t enough weight to back up the music. Somebody Save Me is pretty serviceable yet it’s hardly essential.