De-Basement (Review: Barren Waste, Dreaming in Aeons 2011)

The souls of emperors and cobblers may be cast from the same mold, but when it comes down to music there is no such sense of equality nor familiarity; a case made abundantly clear listening to the likes of chaotic hardcore act Barren Waste. It's a nice set up; proceed to kidnap and then cage a low end vocal range male of whom you desire to be your vocalist , proceed to zap him with cattle prods every time you desire a vocal input and in the mean time let rip some crazy weed inspired blur of heavy metal guitar solo's and hardcore progressions, and then record it all for a one side sandpaper other side velvet slab of musical pain/delight.

Its an approach that they do well, upon listening I feel like I exist as a doppelganger able to experience both parts of me simultaneously, one half at  heavy metal concert or harmony conscious hardcore shindig and the other half witnessing an aneasthetic free tiger castration, ouch.

There is but one fatal flaw, the Achilles heel of many a band and that is production quality, recorded in a one take basement session fails to really maximise engagement and likeability, something such a play style very much demands and thus leaves the release pants down and somewhat unable to perform. Even so for the more punkier injections there is that sense of proteinless discharge.

I may not be so keen on the quality of output, but the creative input is certainly commendable and something I very much like, always having a soft spot for anything that fuses harmony and harshness into a weird sense of carnage I am certain that it is bound to awe many if given the tools or witnessed live. So in conclusion, aside from calling you dope smoking, kidnap happy sadists (take my metaphorical verbal punishment you curs!), you guys have a cool formula going and I am interested to see where it goes!