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BLIND EQUATION “A Funeral In Purgatory”
BLIND EQUATION “A Funeral In Purgatory”
By Dr. Abner Mality
This was one of the most painful listening experiences I’ve had in a while. I really debated whether I should review this at all, as musically this is my version of Kryptonite. I don’t really enjoy doing super negative reviews. But BLIND EQUATION described themselves as “cybergrind”. With that bit of blatant mislabelling, all bets are off.
There’s about as much grind in this as a TAYLOR SWIFT album. Which is to say, none. You want grind? Put in the latest from CAUSTIC WOUND...a tenth of a second of that would annihilate this. I can’t believe this is a Chicago band, or that these guys are from the home of CIANIDE, CARDIAC ARREST and USURPER. Even DISTURBED packs more metal punch than BLIND EQUATION! Here we have an album soaking in radio friendly squeaky clean synthesizers and vocal lines that have more in common with LINKIN PARK than FEAR FACTORY. At one point, the press sheet quotes the singer James McHenry as saying “I was really inspired by the vocal delivery on the first two SLIPKNOT albums, the first KORN album and artists like LIFELOVER…” There you have it, ladies and gents. Even the harsh shouts are very generic sounding.
I kept waiting for any sign of real grit and heaviness to emerge. My vigil was in vain. As the album proceeds, it actually gets softer and softer all the time, with the last 3 tracks “Still”, “Incomplete” and “Nothing” bringing me to the absolute limits of my listening ability. Now I listen to a lot of different kinds of music...I like good industrial metal and enjoy spacey synth soundscapes. BLIND EQUATION doesn’t even make the grade with those. This just sounds utterly bland to me. “Cybergrind”, my ass. I know Prosthetic Records like to take gambles with their musical choices. This time they crapped out.
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