Cloudkicker - The Discovery (2008)
Ben 'B.M.'
Sharp, AKA Cloudkicker is a one-man progressive-metal band who has
managed to clone himself several times in order to play the other
instruments. Some people say he just records the other instruments
separately, but what's the fun in imagining that? Don't believe everything the filthy charlatans tell you.
I guess I'm pretty torn about this. The tracks that lean more towards a progressive-metal styling (that people on SevenString will quickly alert you that "IT'S DJENT!!!") are pretty repetitive and seem to blend in with each other, but they're usually followed by a quieter, post-rock track serving as a good interlude to the next track, and sadly, the interludes end up being more interesting than the actual showcasing of djenty riffering.
Don't get me wrong, everything's structured well enough, but on the more extreme tracks, it feels like having a vocalist would've aided the music a fair bit. I'm not even necessarily talking harsh vocals, but more ala Dan Tompkins (TesseracT/White Moth Black Butterfly/Skyharbor/Living Colour/what other bands he's started since I've begun writing this review) to really help bring the music to the next level. Ultimately, the instrumentals don't consistently keep my interest, and that's a shame, because I can tell this album wasn't just hammered out in an afternoon, or to masturbate his guitar for sweet online cred.
If you harass Misha 'Bulb' Mansoor on Instagram every day talking about how much his guitar tone makes you jizz, how you want to make love to his guitar, or other extremely creepy "holy shit dude I don't even know you" Stan comments like that, then I'd give it a chance, but as for me, I'm gonna have to poke around Cloudkicker's discography as time goes on to see what else he has to offer.
Talented? Definitely. Produced well? Absolutely. Could the album potentially be improved by providing a larger prominence of ambient/post-rock musical stylings? Very oddly specific question, but yes.
6/10 ________________________________________________________
Check out this album for FREE on Cloudkicker's Bandcamp!
