Opener “Is This The End” makes for an encouraging start. Rooting the gloomy riffs in heavy rock-oriented textures gives the music a down-to-earth appeal, trading in the occult leanings of classic doom for a context more in line with the personal struggles of grunge. Main single “Dead Sun” doubles down on the heel-dragging doom-grunge, producing something with a passing resemblance to Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.” Antirope is at its best when stacking layers of riffs and solos together into something with an almost progressive flow with few constraints, a state which mid-album highlights “Give Me More” and “Passenger” build up to nicely.
Amnesia struggles to get off the ground, though, with the vocals a prime cause. These are technically proficient, but thoroughly generic and plagued by a fatal excitement deficiency. The apparent goal is to sound pained and morose all the time, but the delivery falls on the wrong side of mopey. The central position in the mix and compositions make it hard to get around the performance as well as the lyrics, which are of the ‘I love you but I’m sad’ variety. It’s an unfortunate symptom of the alt-metal DNA, which also includes a propensity to vague nothing-burgers like ’Time is a killer / I’m killing time’ or I’m a passenger trapped within you. On top of that, quite a few tracks start off with poor riffs and zero spirit, requiring too much time to get to a point where they’re actually good. For a prime example, we have “Time is a Killer” again: the introductory chords sound like Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff” in slow-motion.
It’s not like Antirope doesn’t have good ideas. While I don’t love semi-electronic ballad “Everything You Are,” the sprinkles of piano contrasting with the keyboard-generated beats are downright inspired. And right after that corny line in “Passenger” the band unleashes a beautiful barrage of emotive riffs. The production is not fantastic, with the vocals hogging the spotlight too much for my taste, but it’s pretty good. The guitars have a nice rough ‘n tumble, faded jeans kind of sound, which is used effectively when those sweet climactic ascending licks start dolphin-hopping over each other. I just wish the journey to get there were more enjoyable, because every time I get to the effective, gloom-laden riffs near the end of “Beautiful Liar,” I’ve endured 4 minutes of weepy plodding.
There is definitely an appeal to Antirope. If you can stomach the somewhat overbearing heart-on-sleeve style, you might find something to like in Amnesia. The grungy alt-metal and classic doom style mashup is promising for the sadboi lovers amongst us, and the outfit proves itself capable of building up to a satisfying peak. But there’s a lot of deburring to do before this German machine runs smoothly, with tune-ups required on the riffs and the vocals in particular. I’ll be keeping my eye out for the next run.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Eclipse Records
Website: facebook.com/antirope
Releases Worldwide: June 30th, 2023
