Sikth - 'The Trees...' (Gut)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
They've finally found the magic formula - everything you've ever wanted from every spin-off genre of heavy-metal music played over the top of each other at the same time. Sikth are not here to relax your head. More like give it a good kicking.
It's the kind of music some people are going to absolutely adore - masses of complex time-signatures, layer upon layer of guitars, slap-bass playing and alien screams over stabs of sound as heavy as they come. Their love of poetry, the woodland and all things extreme puts Sikth into a genre of their own, one that stands firm somewhere between The Dillinger Escape Plan and J.R.R. Tolkein. Oh yes, this is Forest-core, baby...
For the first good quarter of an hour, 'TTADADOWFSW' (how's that for an acronym?) is thick with paroxysms of abrasive funk-metal such as the ever-contorting 'Hold My Finger', or the opening, altogether more melodic (whilst still sounding like Mike Patton dying in a food blender) 'Scent Of The Obscene'. Predominately, it's exhilarating, but there comes a point near the end of 'Skies of the Millennium Night' where it's all getting a little bit too much to take; Sikth are faced with a self-created problem even this early in the game - when you've used every note in existence, just what the hell do you play next?
If this is anything to go buy, you get a lot of success by putting down the guitars and sitting down at a piano for something as sparse and studied as 'Emersion Part 1'. We'll even overlook the conceited nature of a metal band playing a classical piano song in two movements simply because Sikth's quieter moments (and there are a good few) bring such soothing relief from the barrage of psycho guitar-battering that they're sandwiched between. It's also refreshing to see a band having equal success when playing with both incredible speed and calculated subtlety. One thing's for sure - it contains more ideas than most metal albums you'll have heard in a very long time.
A shame then that it often comes across as just one big stream of musical consciousness, so many ideas all fighting for air=time at the same moment that it can't help but sound disjointed in places or repeat itself in others ('Wait For Something Wild' is slightly reminiscent of, well, a lot that preceded it, really). It does somewhat spoil the enjoyment of what comes so close to being a very fine record, along with an occasional tendency to lean towards over-polished production-techniques... When you're trying to be brutal, there's no need for elegance, especially when, like Sikth, you've already proved you can dish out stylish detail on your own terms.
It sacrifices direction for a run into the unknown. Occasionally, it does however stumble upon rare gems, the tribal rhythms, spooky yelps and Faith No More-like croon of a brilliant 'Tupelo' being one of the shiniest. Also, even though it's admittedly ridiculous, just try not to savour the spoken-word climax of the record, the astoundingly mad 'When Will the Forest Speak..?' Such moments of greatness aren't few and far between, it's just that when they arrive, they seem haphazard and confused about their own existence. Nonetheless, although it needs refining, the sheer ambition of 'The Trees Are Dead...' is something that should be embraced. Hold on tight.
Artists in this article: Sikth
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