Reido – Minus Eleven

posted by Zamo on January 27, 2012

Reido – Minus Eleven ( -11 )

Country: Belarus

Genre: Sludge Doom / Math Metal

Label: Slow Burn Records

From the beginning until this year Reido have succeeded to put together two albums, “F:\all” in 2006, and the album in question, “Minus 11″ was released on the 11/11/11 by Slow Burn Records.

Unlike the first album “F:\all”, “Minus Eleven” brings major changes in the style of the band. A strong transition was made from the very sludgy and minimalist funeral doom to an aggressive sludge doom, but at the same time quite complex, technical and sometimes even some elements of math metal being present. The atmosphere of the entire album is really, how should I put it, hateful and aggressive, and it is hard to be anything else when among the titles on the cover we find: “Violence & Destruction”, “The Six Day War”, etc.

“- 11” brings us songs that are very well made and quite technical, but this at a time can be quite tedious and one might loose interest, especially if the melodic line sounds almost the same. Well this thing could have happened because there are little rhythm breaks; some exceptions can be heard on “Violence & Destruction” and “Flows & Eruptions”. The riffs on this album are very agressive, heavy and distorted, not as distorted as one could meet in Electric Wizard, but just as heavy, one can hear them from one end to another of the album.

As to what vocal concerns, grunting vocals, somewhat in a hardcore way, very similar to what one can hear in “Cult of Luna”. Overall, not bad vocals but I was not quite impressed, maybe because I prefer a more doomish touch to it.

So “- 11”, aggressive – yes, technically complex – yes, powerful harsh vocals – yes, heavy sludge doom riffs – yes, but for me the “minus” part of the album: too linear for my taste.

All in all, it is not about me here, but if you’re okay with all the “yes-es” above, you can take “Minus Eleven” into consideration.

Songs that attracted my attention: “Violence & Destruction”, “The Six-Day War”, “Arhat” – a slow sludge / funeral doom song.

Rating: 6.5

Tracks: