ALBUM REVIEW: Hermeneutics – Blut
Concept albums are a tough art form to tackle – if done right, it’s an effective way to tell a story through music. Done poorly, and the listener feels that the album is bloated with pretentious music and filler that makes no sense put together in an album. It’s a tough tightrope for musicians to balance and create an enjoyable musical experience for all. This is the challenge that BLUT decided to undertake with their Gothic industrial outing, Hermeneutics. Does this Italian-Swiss group master the concept album here and deliver some great music within a theme?
Truth be told, the album is like a roller-coaster ride; a lot of slow rides to the top and steep falls very quickly. There’s a lot of interesting ideas that show the band are creative and know the music BLUT wants to create. However, putting them together is another story. Most of the time, it feels jarring and confusing to hear. For example, going from III The Empress and its electric sound to IV The Emperor where it takes on a dark symphonic metal style. Interesting ideas and the music is done really well here, however the elements of vocals and lyrics. Each of the songs is named after different tarot cards, and there are effects in the songs that resemble that, for example, in X The Wheel of Fortune, the effect of a wheel spinning can be heard throughout, and in XII The Hanged Man, the sound of swinging rope closes out the song. Whilst that is an interesting take as part of the concept, it doesn’t feel new or unique to hear. This is not helped by the fact that there are a lot of interlude tracks that just feel like filler tracks and levitating the album to a pretentious level.
Lyrics seem to add to that pretentious nature gathered so far with this album, adding to that “all over the place” feeling, like in XI The Justice and XVI The Tower. This doesn’t help because the vocals don’t invoke the emotion that the lyrics need. The female clean vocals are alright, sometimes the operatic sound is great, like in III The Empress, but other times they feel inappropriate for the tone, like in VII The Chariot and in XIV The Temperance. The male unclean vocals, meanwhile, seems very off rhythmically, as if that vocalist tried to syncopate the rhythm of his vocals. It really doesn’t work, especially in songs like IX The Hermit and XIII. This, and the mix on the majority of the songs on this album, leaves an unsure feeling that the band had an idea, but didn’t exactly know what to do with it.
Overall, there are some great ideas here, but the potential for an amazing concept isn’t here. There are so many parts to Hermeneutics that could work on their own, but together just leaves a confusing mess once it’s all over. A lot of random interlude tracks that don’t add anything and the tracks that are longer than 2 minutes don’t seem to connect between all the elements of the band. Drums, bass, and guitar work amazing and the talent is evident within the music, but vocals and lyrics need a lot more work and a lot more focus for BLUT to make something truly amazing.
Rating: 5/10
Hermeneutics is out now via AUSR.
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