Cotheria -
Music lesson number one: dynamics relates to the variation in sound intensity or volume in music.
Music lesson number two: back in the 90s the soft/loud dynamic helped some guy called Kurt achieve a modicum of success, even though he openly admitted to ripping off every Gen-X’ers favourite non-commercially successful band the Pixies, who, let’s face it, pretty much single-handedly helped define alt. rock with their employment of stop-start timing and wide dynamics.
Music lesson number three: the sonic tension created when juxtaposing quiet and restrained verses with loud and explosive choruses was further adopted by though certainly not limited to nu-metal bands such as System of a Down in the early part of this decade.
Music lesson number four: contrasting song dynamics can unleash upon the listener a melodic yet abrasive wall of effulgently sublimated noise that, although utilized to great effect by the aforementioned bands, in the wrong hands sounds like a big old pile of homogenised crap.
All of this leads quite succinctly to the point I am on the cusp of making regarding Cotheria’s EP titled “The Harlequin”. Touted as “the breath of fresh air loyal metal fans have been waiting for”, funny, because as a devoted follower of the metal faith I was blissfully unaware as to my waiting for anything, fresh air or otherwise. The four tracks that make up “The Harlequin”, though displaying adequate musical ability, fall flat on the promise of being fresh or something worth waiting for.
While I’m on a ‘lessons in music’ tangent I may as well point out something else that bothers me (where ‘bothers’ is a euphemism for ‘really fucking pisses me off’) - occasionally growling your vocals does not heavy make, nor do downtuned, fuzzy guitars, and self-aggrandizing claims of creating a “unique wall of ear-splitting sound” and being “set to revive” the metal scene are quickly and easily dispelled when one actually listens to your EP.
This slow to mid-tempo metal-lite, while not the most unoriginal musical output, lacks that all-important antagonism between a controlled and thunderous rhythm section and the verging-on-chaos guitar histrionics which forms the foundation of all that we know and love about metal. Stand-out riffs and performances are overtly missing, the result being four songs that rely way too heavily on the constantly repeated loud/quiet formula in an attempt to achieve some kind of dynamism within the music.
Rock music, let alone metal, isn’t about playing it safe, and although Cotheria’s brand of all-to-often mass-consumed, pop-tinged metal may transfer to the live setting with more energy and vigour, like most things easily digested this is not only easily forgotten, but non-challenging, non-compulsory listening not set to revive anything.