Thursday, October 3, 2013

Sporadic Slaughter- Thoughts on Our Significance


Sporadic Slaughter is a death metal band from the UK that formed back in 2004. This band may be young but they are armed with a solid production job and the ability to write a damn good song. This alone will take them places if they make the right moves. While listening it is by no means difficult to envision these guys rising up and slaying the majority of the competition. The main thing that jumps out upon first listen is the variety. These guys manage to dish out a whole smorgasbord of death metal stylings in an 11 minute burst. Anybody with the ability to grasp an instrument can attempt this but not many succeed. At any rate it is evident when listening that Sporadic Slaughter took the time to go about mastering these stylistic shifts enough to make them cohesive. This factor alone is very impressive and has been the driving force that has kept me coming back.

The guitar playing throughout is excellent. The band maneuvers through tremolo sections, groove filled moments and fairly chaotic explosions with ease. Even with multiple of these major transitions throughout there is never even the slightest drop in momentum. The vocal approach here is pretty standard. There's the typical bellowing low and also some raspy, tortured shrieks. Nothing too special but they are delivered in a way that will keep the listener interested for the brief runtime. The lyrical themes may be a surprise to some (considering the band name). Science, space and religion are discussed on Thoughts on Our Significance. While the lyrics are fairly thought provoking for the most part the anti-religious anthem Devolution of Consciousness caught my attention the most. I tend to find scathing religion to be a bit of a tired theme in metal, but Sporadic Slaughter actually managed to write up something that didn't come across as a pointless rehash of what we've heard from countless other metal bands.

Overall Sporadic Slaughter has brought a more than worthy EP to the table. The well thought out song structures and writing in general puts this a step above the typical bands sporting this sort of sound. It does seem that they still have some work to do in terms of finding their own sound, with that being said it doesn't prevent this EP from packing one hell of a punch. Although the band does have a slightly more modern approach it is clear that they have some roots in the old school. Recommended for all fans of death metal. It's only 11 minutes, what's there to lose?

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Caleb's Door

"Some doors were not meant to be opened"


Caleb's Door is Arthur Vincie's feature film debut. The film is a horror/drama about a ex-marine who is having some serious dream issues. Along with this he is having a boatload of personal problems dumped on him at once. Lady problems, work problems, the usual. He is having a bit of writer's block and upon drifting off into snoozeland he is always greeted with a red door. These dreams start to get stronger and stronger until Caleb realizes he must confront what is behind the door to move onto the next step in his life.

First things first, the story itself was rather interesting. Unfortunately the execution lacks by quite a bit and makes the film hard to watch. The acting is mediocre at best, the violence is practically nonexistent, the music completely pulls you out, and the story is just lacking anything worthy of warranting an 82 minute runtime. As a short this film may have worked, but with this link it just drags on and on.

Overall I can't recommend Caleb's Door. It almost seems like a soap opera attempting to push a story that could classify as "horror". It's a film high on drama and low on interest. This might fit in well with some of the movies played on the Lifetime channel but in the ol' horror collection it just doesn't fly. Those who read this site are aware that I am a HUGE fan of low budget film, but there a some things that even I can't find much quality in. This is one of those things. Sadly there isn't much to say about Caleb's Door. It had a solid idea going behind it but no steam to move it forward. Skip it.