There’s an identity to the sound of this album. This is muddy, crusty, bluesy style rock metal from the USA, except that Sofy Major are French. It was recorded in the USA, however, with assistance in recording from guys involved with Unsane and Converge. “Toxic sludge” with noise rock, hardcore and punk is how it’s presented to us on the release sheet.
In fact it’s the presentation of this album which was my main sticking point. I’m fine with it being a beer n fags kind of affair, but the harsh raw quality which it seems to cultivate take the edge off the songs. The opener “Aucune Importance” won through for me, with its heavy and forward-driving nature, chunky riff and powerful drums. There are some spoken words. That’s ok but the harsh vocals are just unmelodic or the result of too many evenings in smoke-filled rooms. The second track “Comment” captured the real problem here. The production and song are sort of punkish and there’s lots going on, which could be good, but it just doesn’t work. The aim seems to be hard-ball, yet non-produced sound but the two things don’t go together. I don’t think the songs are so great. Meanwhile the vocalist is straining away, Darkane fashion, making a lot of effort for no result or impact. It’s all so disjointed without having any purpose or even variety. The individual parts are good apart from the vocals, but the production seems to be taking this somewhere else.
With each track I found a lack of cohesion. “Steven the Slow”, which features Dave Curran of “Unsane”, is crusty and bluesy but it all seemed a lot of metal solemnity for nothing. There’s an air of Canned Heat about it. The chugging rhythm is ok and could get under your skin in the right way, but I just wasn’t connecting with this scene. The only track in fact on this long, twelve track album which resounded on me was the nightmarish “Seb”. The soul, feeling and originality they had was missing on the rest of the album, which after being mixed was a collection of seemingly pointless songs with which I felt no connection. Songs like “Coffee Hamman” are deadeningly discordant in a punkish way, while “Platini” (after the former French footballer?) could have taken off in a number of directions, but its freshness of instrumental creativity was as ever diluted into a bit of a mess.
It could be that I’m being harsh here. I’m certainly sympathetic as the first attempt at recording was washed away, literally, by hurricane Sandy. I don’t know whether this album was supposed to sound like this strange mixture or was a result of the hastily revised production arrangements. I suspect the former. If it’s supposed to be avant-garde or something, it doesn’t work. The genre’s wrong for that. I couldn’t just go with the flow because there wasn’t any. In summary, “Idolize” has energy and some good riffs and beats, but for the most part it disappeared into nothing memorable. If ever there was a case for a re-mix, this is it.
(4/10 Andrew Doherty)
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