Originally written by Tim Pigeon
With today’s saturated metal scene, bands have to do something special to stand out above the herd. Some achieve this by writing great metal, even if formulaic, while others try to merge different styles of metal to create new hybrids. Enter Charger.
Hailing from England, Charger’s music brings together two disparate styles of metal – sludgy doom and noise-core, with a little touch of old-time punk mixed in. Kind of like Neurosis crossed with The Dillinger Escape Plan. For the most part, the music is down tuned, slow, and crushingly heavy, while Tim Machin screams over it all. Machin’s screams remind me a bit of another Tim – Vision of Disorder’s Tim Williams. Once in a while they speed up and lock into a nice groove, but those moments are too short and too far apart.
Confessions of a Man… is produced to be very fuzzy, which fits with the sludgy-ness of the music. What really irks me about this album is that so many of the songs are just too damn long, and they stretch them out far too much with droning, repetitive parts. There are usually about 2-3 minutes of decent music in each 7-minute song. Case in point, the opening track “Ultra Violet Flyer.” It’s fine for the first three minutes, then you’ve got three more minutes of slooow unnecessary stuff, then a little solo and done. Cut out that middle and you’re set.
“Airtank Face Pincers” provides a fitting example of how good Charger could be. Up until about 4:10, the song kicks ass. It’s heavy, mid-paced and intense. Then the song is stretched out for another five minutes of the droning repetitiveness I touched on earlier. Even in a live setting, where little flaws are overlooked, this would come across as excessive. All throughout the album it feels like they are inexorably building towards something big, but that climax never comes.
I’m sure this is the album that the band wanted to record, because I’m sure a label wouldn’t push a band in this direction. It’s certainly apart from the norm, but I don’t get off on the torturously slow-to-develop stuff. Who knows, maybe their sound might come across better live. The potential is there, but mostly unrealized. It might help to partake in your substance of choice before playing this one.
