Zatokrev - The Bat, The Wheel, And a Long Road to Nowhere Review
by Matt Hensch
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What do bats, wheels, and long roads to nowhere have in common? The three of them boil up the title of the third album by Switzerland's sludgy maestros known 'round here as Zatokrev. In the ten years between their founding and "The Bat, the Wheel, and a Long Road to Nowhere," Zatokrev cooked up a style of Herculean doom/sludge metal with some death-like traits thrown around for good measure. Through nine songs of pure apocalypse, Zatokrev heaves monumental crushers that quake all of Heaven and Earth between the band's shearing guitar distortion and gigantic bass and percussion blitzkrieg, enough at least to pulverize anything in a reasonable circumference. Like a lot of groups of this blueprint, they have the brutality factor nailed and posted for all to see; however, they drop the ball when it comes to purposeful songwriting and execution. It often appears they are, indeed, wandering on a long road to nowhere.So, "The Bat
" (shortened for sanity's sake) is a bit more organic sounding than the traditional idea of a mega-heavy doom/sludge/death metal group. They offer everything that their identity typically conjures up: ripping riffs, quaking percussion, harsh vocals, cauterizing brutality, long songs, unhurried raids of violence, and so on, but with a Neurosis vibe, which appears a little meditative, too. They manage to pack a mammoth punch when they strike, with tracks like "Goddamn Lights" and "Angels of Cross" showing Zatokrev is more than able to justify its lengthy pieces when asked to. Most of the remaining album blends into itself, as much as I hate to say it. "Medium" and "9" are two perfect examples of rehashed ideas poorly executed and recycled, most likely trying to capture the successful blueprint found on the opening and closing numbers but to no avail. Zatokrev runs through the motions with their by-the-numbers approach, treading through sludge bombs that replicate this and that without the slightest bit of strength that should otherwise come from a monolithic piece. Another one of my many gripes is directed toward the vocalist, whose shouting vocals deliver little magic to the picture and end up complicating things further. The production is very clean and polished, bringing out clarity over roughness and grit, which can go either way. I'd prefer to have something a bit more undercooked and rawthis is sludge/doom metal, after allinstead of auditory deliciousness, but it appropriately guards the group's efforts, I suppose. "The Bat
" bites like a bat, runs like a wheel, and turns onto a long road to nowhere. That's a prophetic title if I've ever seen one. Whatever charming spell Zatokrev casts on "Goddamn Lights" and "Angels of Cross" becomes overshadowed by the shallow and mediocre songs sandwiched in the middle of these fine anthems, and that's a solid fifty-plus minutes of inconsistency. This album is an insanely long one, and it fails to justify its length; one of the factors making it almost unreasonable, in fact. The shortest tune lasts for fewer than five minutes; three tracks crawl over ten minutes with several others nearing double digits. "The Bat, the Wheel, and a Long Road to Nowhere" ends up feeling like a chore instead of a timely, enjoyable opus, and it all circles back to its lax songwriting and unnecessary running time. Not worth it.
Zatokrev - The Bat, The Wheel, And a Long Road to Nowhere Rating:4.5
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