Originally written by Erik Thomas.
Synopsis:
There is no synopsis I can write that can succinctly describe this album in one short, witty sentence, so just keep reading…
Review:
Very rarely am I stumped by an album. So when I signed up for this second album of a (now disbanded) band with ties to Antagony and All Shall Perish, I snagged it and listened, and listened, and listened. And yet I still cannot come up with easy way of summing up this album. And I like easy labels, so that’s immensely frustrating to me. Ultimately though, the easy way to categorize this album is this: brilliant.
Neo-post rock-melo-prog-death? Post-thrash-shoegazer-core? Melodic-prog-death-thrash-post-rock? Fuck I dunno, but I could pigeonhole and namedrop all day long to no avail. With elements of Between the Buried and Me, Circle Takes the Square, Neurosis, Converge, Opeth, and Death with hints of the expected All Shall Perish/Antagony ties, Wastelands is a veritable smorgasbord of styles, yet somehow they all come together to form something unique and special.
Mixing faster melodic death metal based structures (“Breaking Point”, “Divide by Zero”, “Erebus”) with shifting progressive hues with expanded atmospheric elements (“Wastelands”, “Whisper Perfect Lie”) and even a lengthy instrumental ( “Obsidian Sun”) HTTT are as unconventional as they come, but without being as scattershot and unpredictable as say, BTBAM, and being far more based in basic melodic/progressive death metal and post rock elements rather than metalcore. However, all the elements come into play perfectly, intermingling symbiotically and with a skill level that’s shamefully understated. Tracks like “The Descent” and “Cascading Dawn” highlight HTTT’s more lengthy, ambient, shoe-gazer side without being too clichéd or overly dramatic and mellow as Ben Caragol keeps all his vocals in that metalcore rasp while the music ebbs and crescendos around him like waves crashing onto unmoving rocks. Even at 70 minutes, as 10 minute closer “Whisper Perfect Lies” fades out, you can’t help wonder how such a little known and hyped band can deliver an album this good and it not get noticed.
There are few short lived projects I lament, but based on this effort and the progression from their far more basic debut Tear My Eyes Out…, metal as a genre lost a band that could have really been something special.
