Frankly put, this album is not as good as I had expected and hoped it would be. The previous release from this Bristol band, Ghost, was an incredible mix of unnerving squeals and screams, jungle beats, skewed strings, and gothic atmosphere. It all came together to sound like something My Bloody Valentine might do for a horror movie. Extremely unnerving and cool, with moments of extreme beauty thrown in.
Sound of Violence follows in the footprints of Ghost. The titular first track starts off with a random assortment of clangs and bangs. Little melodic snippets and string flurries can be heard throughout, along with those unnerving screams and groans that permeated Ghost. And like most of Third Eye Foundation's stuff, it's all propelled with these sharply off-kilter beats.
But there's just too much going on at once in these songs, and it's not used effectively. In fact, these songs seemed almost simplistic compared to the stuff on Ghost. It becomes too disjointed and off-kilter to the point of being annoying. The nice thing about Ghost was that the sounds swirled, collapsed, morphed, and collided around you. It all came together in this atmosphere that left you uneasy and nervous. On Sound of Violence, the elements are all there, but they're just not used to their full potential.
There's even a remix of "Corpses As Bedmates" (my favorite song from Ghost), but it is nowhere near as good as the original. The original was this 8 minute long opus of constantly changing beats and the shuddering wails of lost souls. On this version, those disturbing banshee-on-a-rainy-night wails are squelched and diluted and the beats aren't as insistent. The mix also sounds muddier and not as crisp.
This one is for completists only, since you only get 4 tracks. It's not as terrible as when I first listened to it, so it has slowly grown on me. But if you're looking for a good introduction to The Third Eye Foundation, stick with Ghost.
Similar sounding releases
2004DecomposureTaking Things Apart
1999SquarepusherMaximum Priest
1999TleilaxuGenetherapy
2001Soul-Junk1941
1998DJ SpookyRiddim Warfare
2000Kid 606Down With the Scene
