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Cover Art

Valina ( )

A Tempo! A Tempo!
Joyful Noise ( http://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/ )

Remember how cool that Battles album sounded when you first heard it? Now, remember how boring and contrived it started to sound after about five listens? Austria's Valina are that Battles album after about 100 listens. Personally, I'd love to track down the person who thought bringing progressive rock back into music would be cool and give them a good punch in the neck, since it's brought bands like this out of the woodwork. All the fast finger-riffing guitars, fuzzed-out and obscure vocals and driving drums are here in their progged-out glory. All the songs have oblique, non-sensical titles (“Eyes Window”, “Clock Shock and Freedom”, “Idioms Palace”). They've even got a oh-so-cool horn section in a few songs. The most annoying feature is the chugga-chugga bass riff through the album, a sound that hasn't sounded right since Helmet dropped out of the public consciousness. If you like self-congradulatory neo-prog with emo tinges with not a speck of personality, you'll probably like this. All others, avoid this please, I beg you.

 

By Steve Marlow
Jun 11, 2009

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