Another pathetic addition to the most overworked, saturated, and worthless genre in metal today. Gardenian have zero depth, weak vocals, boring riffing, and of course, are In Flames clones to the core (a band that doesn't deserve to be emulated anyway). By the time this 47:18 minute disaster finally came to an end, I felt as if I was counting every individual second. The worst part is, this is supposed to be their good album.

While I'd like to leave the review at that I guess some sort of explanation is in order. There is absolutely no more than 10 fresh seconds on this entire release. The double-bass pattern and occasional snare drum blast beats are so run-of-the-mill that the band seems to play like a mindless zombie. I guess the novelty here is supposed to be the frequent interjection of Erik Hawk's clean vocals among the death metal growls, but this detracts very little from the "melodic, technical, oh-so-heavy" riffing formula that has been ceaselessly beaten to death so many times I don't think any band can do it right anymore. Of course, I don't really believe that any vocalist could find energy in singing lyrics as stupid as these anyway, so the entire concept is more or less pointless. A completely wretched and pitiful outing in all aspects.

This is 47:18 minutes of my life that I want back.

© 2000 hando