Customer Reviews

Fourth Discontinuity

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Finally the groundbreaking influence of the much heralded MESHUGGAH has begun to bear recognizable fruit, in what is to these ears the first downright clone. Other influences must not have survived the editing process, as Fourth Discontinuity sounds explicitly like MESHUGGAH on training wheels. Now I'm a bit softer on clones than most (I once put up a substantial bid for the original Dolly on eBay but was robbed of my prize at the last minute by those meddling federal agents). For instance, I've managed to curate an aesthetic appreciation for PANTERA over the years despite the legions of pimple faced kids defiling the otherwise raging live shows with their Load t-shirts on full display. And I've quite enjoyed many of the efforts I've received that resembled PANTERA note for note, and made no apologies for it at that. If I judged every piece of music that struck my ears based on it's current trendiness rather than it's quality I'd be depriving myself of some A-number one sh**. All of which is a roundabout way of admitting SISTHEMA rocked my world despite a lick of originality. They've got the chops, they've got the licks, the only things missing is the all pervading sense of weirdness that sets MESHUGGAH off from anyone else that's politely declined to play the rock star role. I'm not sure it was necessary to steal MESHUGGAH's sound AND their lyrical predilection for new age techno doublespeak, but what the hell. I'm sure these guys would swear up and down they have a multitude of other influences, but there's only one they need to get the job done right.

...

... In fact, I applaud what Sisthema has done here. It takes a mighty musician to be able to play the complex rhythms that are layed forth on this album, and what's here is played rather well. And, ok, they don't sound EXACTLY like Meshuggah. They've got their own thing going on here. The problem is, what's here does not match the quality of what has influenced them.

It seems to me that the members of this band set out to compose the heaviest music they could muster, with complete disregard for musical quality (aside from previously mentioned rhythmic complexity, which seems more like a tool used to create insanity rather than style). The vocals are whiny and very annoying until you adjust to them, and the lyrics are laughably bad. The guitar riffs are often pretty good, albeit simple, and always, always, always loud. The drummer gets a tough job done well; sometimes his playing behind all that electricity is the only thing making the song. But together, it just sounds like one big mess.

You wouldn't know it from the review score, but I actually like this CD. ...