Terrific cover art? Check. Awesome band name? Check. Great song titles like “Suckling at the Teat of the She-Beast?” CHECK. So why don’t I love Poisoned Altars, the new album from Portland’s Lord Dying, from now until the end of time? I liken it to the same reason I never fell head over heels in love with a band like Planes Mistaken for Stars: the music is a bit one-dimensional and, as a result, falls flat.
Poisoned Altars was produced by Joel Grind of Toxic Holocaust, and while technically a sludge record, it’s also replete with influences from thrash, hardcore, metalcore and hard rock. The barking, hardcore-style vocals help drive the pace of the album and blend nicely with the thick, riff-tastic guitar stylings and bombastic drumming. My personal favorite track, “A Wound Outside of Time,” has all the makings of an anthem: the riffs are catchy and alcohol-drenched; the vocals lend themselves to a sing-along; and the drums sound like metal plates of armor being beaten with petrified bones. It accomplishes what most of the other tracks on the album lack: a third dimension that pulls you in before it spits you out with an abrupt ending.
Without that third dimension to the music, the rest of the songs tend to fall flat and mostly are just kind of…there, playing in the background. Sadly, this great track is followed by one of the weakest efforts on the album, “An Open Sore,” in which guitarist/vocalist Erik Olson drops his throat-ripping barks and begins what sounds like an imitation of Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein. It simply doesn’t work; it’s not only a stretch for the band, but also a brutal let down following such a strong effort on the previous track.
Other songs on the album, like the aforementioned “She-Beast” open strongly—in this case, with a thundering punk-rawk pace that would make anyone break out in a circle pit. But unfortunately, the song quickly does away with that feeling and falls into a chugging, muted extended breakdown. Sadly, the majority of these songs are just flat-out boring. The obvious comparisons people will draw to genre legends like High on Fire and Corrosion of Conformity—or even fellow Portland natives Red Fang—don’t help either; Lord Dying simply doesn’t live up to the high bar they set for themselves in pursuing that distinctive, filthy sound.
In short, with Poisoned Altars, we’re looking at a band still finding themselves. For all we know, it could be a band that’ll really get it together the next time around. But they aren’t there yet.
-Manny-O-War
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