Metal Underground.com

The Gods of Now are schizo. They have absolutely no idea who they are or what they want to do, and unfortunately they expressed this instability on a musical album. The debut album from The Gods of Now, “Broken,” is filled with four guys wailing away on their instruments. There is little cohesion and even less musicianship. The closest genre is prog-core.

Most of the album is made up of the same formula; shrieking vocals, the snare drum wailing away, and guitars and bass pounding on the same chord over and over. This assault is punctuated by odd sounds, prog breaks and tempo changes, seemingly uncoordinated thrash, and a lot more inanity.

It’s isn’t all bad. There are moments of majesty where the band comes together and gets it going. Whether it be in the heavier ‘core parts or in the more experimental parts, I did sit up and listen a few times. But they quickly throw it away and dive back underwater.

The title track is the only extended respite from the mess. Strong musical themes emerge from the start, and the band carries them through the entire song. The combination of progressive, hardcore, some death metal vocals, and hard rock is very well done. Even the atmospheric and progressive portions play well. It all came together for the one song.

I do admire the perspective they bring to music and to songwriting. They focus on organic creation and certainly do not take themselves too seriously, which is always commendable. Unfortunately that philosophy makes it difficult to create music that people want to listen to repeatedly, as it tends to focus on unconnected sounds rather than cohesive concepts. Even drone metal or the blackest of black metal has harmony, cohesion, and subtlety. I’m all for experimentation and pushing boundaries, but music needs something to be appealing, and all these things are lacking here.

It’s a shame really, as individually the band members are talented and have good musical ideas. Unfortunately “Broken” is so much less than the sum of the band’s parts that the album title is strangely prophetic.