Review Summary: There is abundant potential here, but the production makes it feel like I'm listening to this album from behind a closed door, and whoever is inside is enjoying a great album, but It's all muffled for me.
Autism is a 4-piece band that started out as a solo project that pumped out instrumental post-metal. Over the course of three full lengths they've incorporated post-black metal, doom influences, and some dark ambient in the mix. Hearing that, along with skipping around the album a bit before listening had me excited for this album, and well, it's alright.
It has a very uneasy atmosphere, which is expected when dark ambient is in the picture. I'll go ahead and say it, the two dark ambient songs on this album,
"Rememorari" and
"Nycto-" are my favorite tracks here. The riffs on this album are nice and thick, the bass is groovy, and the drumming is decent from what I can tell. The screams - while few and far in between unfortunately - are great too. There's also some spoken word passages laced throughout that are pretty nice and unique.
Now, in saying all that, I have three problems with this album, two of the problems are small, and one the problems ruins the album for me. We'll start with the small ones. Those cleans could use some work. There are parts where they are okay, and parts where they aren't, but they don't pop up very much so it doesn't matter that much. Also, this album just gets boring and monotonous towards the end. The vocals get more and more scarce as the album goes on, and the music just can't hold up on it's own, we'll get to why that is in a second, but songs like
"Haunting Recollections" bored me to tears. The big issue with this album is, unfortunately, it's production. Yeah, it pisses me off, because i know this album could've been so good with some more polish. This album could have sounded like an absolute behemoth if put in the right hands, but as is, it sounds quiet, muted, and confined. I felt like I was listening to it from behind a door while whoever was on the other side was listening to a great record. The instruments melt together, and the drums are far too low in the mix. Sure the riffs are good, but the production holds them back from being crushing or heavy.
It really is unfortunate, because I did want to like this album. The potential is here, it's easy to see that much, and i'm not telling you to avoid this, because it definitely deserves a fair shake. At the very least, keep an eye out for these guys, I know I will.
