Album Details

• Artist: The Body
• Album: All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood
• Label: At A Loss
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2010-07-17

A 3-sided double LP  limited to 500 copies, "All The Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood" is apparently meant to be listened to as a whole concept, as illustrated by the repetition of operatic chants, single chords, and the feel that something Important is being laid down. It isn't. While there are some great moments-this could have been the single of the year in metal had they just released a couple of the songs-The Body aim for significance and dance that thin Spinal Tap line all metal bands must walk, regardless of intent.

The opener, "A Body," has a seven minute intro featuring a female voice chanting, before a huge riff kicks in, accompanied by muffled screaming behind the angelic ladies. "A Curse" adds tepid ambient prog to a similar melody, with a rising melody that never creates much tension.

On "Empty Hearth," to what sounds like dwarves speaking in tongues, we hear the same distant screaming, a good monoriff undermined by the high pitched, annoying chanting, here and there processed into a more clipped cadence, and barely skirting self-parody.

Yet "Even Saints Knew Their Hour Of Failure And Loss" is worse, with another good heavy sludge riff dissolving into a meandering air reminiscent of Rush trying to cover the original "Star Trek" theme; midway through there are screams of horror, no doubt by someone finding himself trapped in a shitty song.

However, all is not lost. "Song Of Sarin The Brave" and" Ruiner" almost make up for it all, both brilliant, driving doom, with creepy and BELIEVABLE emotion and vocals. But "Lathspell I Name You,"  the closer, returns to yet another attempt at mating sludge with pretentious chanting and operatic fail.

The Body seem to be unnecessarily fighting their own strengths. They are a strong doom band that write killer riffs and has enough melodic sense to draw out the silence and make their sound even more heavy. But too often on "All The Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood" they opt for the arty, and make themselves far less than they might actually be.

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