The juggernaut rolls on as Wrest releases his eleventh
Leviathan album. Check out our numerous reviews of this amazing one-man
project in previous issues.
The experimentation in Leviathan continues, and it's
apparent that Wrest has acquired some new toys in the form of sound and
vocal effect manipulators. The end result is a record that sounds great
in isolated parts, but as a whole is relatively weak compared to Leviathan's
previous work. The main culprits are the vocal experimentations, like
the over flanged voice on track two, and the track with some Battlestar
Galactica Cylon turned techno DJ spoken intro. Wrest probably just got
carried away with all the stuff he suddenly could do. Hopefully the realization
of what works and what doesn't will set in by next record.
As mentioned before, Eleven works well in pockets.
There is some searing blasting material. The opener, an instrumental tom-tom
heavy track similar in feel to the openers of the last two Leviathan records,
and the last song, an ambient piece, are also quite good. But in addition
to the aforementioned critiques, there's just something intangible that
puts Eleven in the shadow of the greatness of albums like Seven
and Shadow of No Light. I mean, it's not like it's totally different
or anything, so it's still worth listening to if you like Leviathan, but
definitely not the one to start your Leviathan collection with (better
make room, 'cause there's a lot of great stuff to be heard.)
