Age of Woe
s/t

Swedish band Age of Woe are a very angry band and they have a little while ago released their debut EP which is both released in 7” format and digital. The guys in the band come from bands with funny names like No Hawaii or Massmord and they have joined forces to explore the soundscapes of the metal and punk genre. Sounds interesting and fascinating, exploration of soundscapes are always funny but it might be absolute rubbish as well. The cover artwork is definitely complete and utter rubbish, horrible is a word I would use but not in a way that it is terrifying and a way that frightens me but terrifying in a way that you actually throw up from it being so bad. It is like it was made by a two-year-old child. One can surely hope that this EP is not as bad as it looks.

Musically it is probably what can be called metalcore, it is aggressive and angry, heavy and ferocious all the time. The three tracks offer aggressive metal music all the way through, the vocals are garbled and muffled growls where words seems to be nonexistent. I think people not into metal would call this an ongoing guttural growl accompanied by a racket of noise. And in part they are right as the music is not particularly varied, there are one or two calmer periods but it mainly goes hard and heavy through and through. The EP plays for little over 13 minutes and it has three tracks.

Yaaaaawn, yawn and another yawn is how I would describe the three tracks on this EP. The thing is that it is just too aggressive too much of the time making it into a wall of sound which is only tiring to listen to. Not saying that it is very bad because it isn’t, just dull and unimaginative. The vocals are also a great big boring part of this album sounding a bit like a badger running like crazy in a field of raspberries or like a self stuffed beaver from a movie. It is not a pleasant thing to listen to whichever parable you decide to use for description. One odd thing about this EP is that it manages to be boring in just 13 minutes, that is a feat in itself.

I tend to try and point out what bands like this should do to make their music more pleasing to me but for this band it was quite difficult and becomes rather vague. They first of all need a new vocalist because the guy who sings now is terrific, sorry I mean that other thing, terrible. Then of course they need to add some variation to their music as it is now it becomes quite boring but with a little bit of variation it might be less so.

I think that this EP might be interesting for those into very angry music and who doesn’t really require their music to show variation or anything like that. For you this might be very appealing, but if you prefer your music a bit varied and also more melodic then this music is not really for you. I think this is a brilliant album in the sense of managing to make it feel dull and too long in only 13 minutes.

In the end though I think that it is an EP for those into this kind of music, the reviewers that are seem to think so at least. I do however think that it is just a big tiring yawn.