Release Date: February 22, 2011
As a rule, artistic expression should be treasured. Abouretum’s The Gathering stretches that ideal to its breaking point. The guitar wankery and glacial pace makes listening to it a chore only fit for a music critic. Actually paying for this tedious exercise in navel gazing isn’t recommended for anyone.
Abouretum’s sound is best described as classic stoner rock with an emphasis on mid to slow tempo guitar melodies and wispy, limp vocals. It’s all very psychedelic in the sense that the only way to enjoy is to get high out of your gourd, dress like a wood elf and frolic though a glen. Although there are few tracks, each song’s sluggish tempo and meandering instrumentation goes on and on. As a whole, the band is competent in their ability to play together, but they fail to produce anything interesting. Concepts such as dynamics, chorus, hooks and diverse rhythms are washed out in favor of a sludgy mix of inane verse, incessant soloing and fuzzy bass.
When songs begin to show promise they fall back into the band’s signature blandness. The track “When Delivery Comes” starts with a tribal drums slowly thrumming and ghostly strings playing a haunting melody. For a moment it seems like that melody might go on a little longer, but it’s pushed out of the way by singer Dave Heumann before it has a chance to breathe. His vocals return the song to the rote pattern of verse-solo-verse the band seems so fond of. Worse, the pace is agonizing and makes a three-minute song feel like six. This album’s problems rest squarely on Heumann’s songwriting.
His lyrics sound like they’re cribbed from The Grateful Dead’s trash can, and too often fall into the nonsensical. The album’s opener, “The White Bird,” contains just a few of the album’s groan-inducing lines: “… and among all, even as its true nature is hid/Here, in the gloaming and black night/Here, in the dawn and the golding bright.”
According to the band’s label, the inspiration for The Gathering came from Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung’s theories about the unconscious. Unfortunately, Heumann doesn’t seem to be trying to communicate Jung’s theories in a way listeners will connect with. His droning verses land like lecture notes punctuated by brain numbing guitar solos.
Creativity and art can easily turn into inscrutable self-indulgence if the artist lets it. Arbouretum falls into that trap by letting the album’s concept overshadow its sound. They put too much of their energy into exploring their favorite intellectual concepts instead of actually constructing music with its own peaks and valleys. Without those the journey is more akin to counting sheep than listening to a good song.
Arbouretum – The Gathering Tracklist:
- “The White Bird”
- “When Delivery Comes”
- “Destroying to Save”
- “Highwayman”
- “Waxing Crescents”
- “The Empty Shell”
- “Song of the Nile”
