Список групп Progressive Metal Loincloth Iron Balls of Steel

I’m sure this has happened to many metalheads out there, or heck, to anyone who likes music. You’re listening to an album that’s quite good; the first few songs are loaded with memorable moments and all that good stuff. But as the album goes on, it degrades more and more. It becomes prevalent that the band crammed all of their favourite songs from the recording sessions onto the beginning of the album and now the latter songs are blasé and not nearly as competent. The riffs might be more stale, and everything feels like it’s filler.
Now imagine an album that comprises of nothing BUT the above description. Nothing but completely ho-hum riffs for forty minutes, having almost nothing surprising or interesting jumping out from the field of redundancy, having no emotional connection to the music, not knowing what or how to feel. And there you have a summary of Loincloth’s first full-length release, Iron Balls of Steel.
Oh, and there’s no singing either.

No vocals of any kind, in fact. I guess maybe I should have been told this prior to hearing the music, because at first I kept waiting for the vocals to come in. And it wasn’t just because I only enjoy music with some vocals—quite to the contrary, in fact—it’s just that usually, for a lot of bands, the music picks itself up and gets going as a whole once the vocals come in. But after the fourth track of chuggy, emotionally-void riffs, snippets of melody and seemingly-random time signature shifts, I realized that this was it; the album had no vocals and wasn’t going to.
Now I must emphasize that this would all be fine IF the band actually DID something with their music. I love instrumental songs like Orion by Metallica or Alice by Sunn O))), but that’s because they either brought powerful, moving atmospheres or they exhibited not only excellent handling of instruments but interesting songwriting, too. I love instrumental music--when it's done right. Loincloth band may be able to switch time signatures on demand, but once the initial novelty of this aspect wears off (about 5 minutes into the album), you’re left with absolutely nothing left to chew on, and you wonder why the entire album feels like down-time on a bad prog-metal album. A lot of chugging interspersed with shards and fragments of actual songwriting or melody, a lot of time-signature shifts, and the feeling that every track is an odd Frankenstein mutation created from several songs stitched together. That’s what this album boils down to, and it basically sums itself up within the first two tracks and introduces nothing new to you at any point down the road. You know, it occurs to me that many great albums do not give themselves away completely within one track. They dispense of new tricks and go new places in a progressive manner. Just listen to an early Burzum album or Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. A good album does not show off all it has to offer right off the bat, because it consequently brings the listener into a pit of boredom a lot faster than it would otherwise

Before Iron Balls of Steel was half way over I had gotten to the point where I was constantly checking what song I was on and comparing it to the track list in the hopes I was nearing the end of the album. And with a 16-song track list, I never seemed to be getting any closer to the end. Despite the fairly average run-time of about forty minutes this album really pulls on my patience. I literally feel like I’m listening to different versions of the same song a million times. Even when I heard somewhat decent riffing on the latter songs it seems to have little effect on me because it’s too little, too late. Not once do the riffs seem to transcend the quality of filler, even at the best of times. The only thing I can say positively about this album is that the musicians are really good at keeping timing. The time signatures are all over the map, but no one musician ever seems to get lost. I guess in that way it’s slightly reminiscent of Tool, but Tool integrates sporadic tempo and signature changes in such a way that they not only impress the crap out of prog fans, but they write amazing songs, too. Here the tempo changes are there in a way that seems so understated it almost becomes a formality needed to fit into the prog metal scene. The drumming, for those so inclined to pick them out from everything else, is actually really good, but it isn’t enough to bring this album out of its lifeless tone. Competent utilization of instruments is nothing compared to the ability to write complete songs that have depth to them.

In a way, Iron Balls of Steel is like chewing a mouthful of rocks. It has grit and dirtiness to it, but it’s devoid of flavour or substance. By the end of the album when my speakers went silent and I was left reflecting on what I’d heard, the only thing going through my head was a random sequence of “DUN DUN. DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN DUUUUUUN. DUN-DUN.” And so on. Actually, it got a bit annoying. What was the purpose of this album? What was the goal for the musicians? It certainly wasn’t entertainment, and even from an avant-garde, ‘different’ point of view this album fails totally because it lacks any sort of personality. If I had to recommend one song it’d be Stealing Pictures as there seems to be a more cohesive flow and some of the melody in there is actually allowed a little time to resonate and expand, but it still isn’t a great song, and it’s the fourteenth track on the damn thing. I’d definitely avoid buying this album.