This
album has given this reviewer a hard time. The first time Butterfly
Messiah sent me a CD to review, it wasn't burned right, so was totally
unlistenable. They sent me another one, and really, I'm not sure it was
worth the wait. Butterfly Messiah, consisting of Robert Nightshade and
Shannon Garson, and joined by Xayden in live performances, has been on the
scene as a musical entity since 1999, and the members thereof have been
active musically in other capacities since 1995. Working on online and
offline presences, they've done pretty well for themselves so far, and are
currently working on their next album, Machines.
However, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Here's a look at this album's
tracks.
Land Beneath the Waves - This one starts out very Legend of Zelda again, low strings with steady synths, then into a pounding industrial beat with high squarewave synths. Shannon supplies high fem. vox. This is fairly standard industrial/ethereal. My main gripe with this band is that Robert's vocals are consistently out of key. It's really annoying.
Machines - The backbone of this track is a bouncy, basketball dribble beat backed by sawtooth synths and odd electronic chirps. Robert's chanting is overlaid by Shannon's high non-vocal singing.
The Strong and Silent Type - High, alternating squarewave synth riff kicks this one off, with more random singing from Shannon. Eventually a stock thumpy beat starts up. Random chanting throughout the track is helpfully supplied by Robert. This is the sort of thing I generally refer to as noodling around; it sort of reminds me of some of Alien Sex Fiend's more disjointed stuff, but not as playful.
Transmigration
- Starting with a descending guitar chord, this one promptly goes into
what sounds like the soundtrack of an early 80s spooky video game, with
backing hyperactive beat, random electronic noise, and vocals which are
more or less the same as all the other ones on this album, although
Shannon actually deigns to supply words on this one. However, they could
have just as easily been supplied by a sample, since they're pretty
repetitive.
Your Lasting Breath - Flanging, flanging, flanging is the name of the game as the 5th track starts off, with actual vocals (oh my g*th!) supplied by Ms. Garson. The whole thing is pretty spacey, and presumably supposed to be ethereal, interspersed with more electronic chirps. There's no attempt made to stick to any key, it seems. This is definitely one of those end-of-the-evening sort of tracks.
Honestly, on most of the tracks here, these folks sort of remind me of Alien Sex Fiend meets the Lords of Acid, minus the sense of humor. It's not bad, but it's not sufficiently good to be particularly interesting, either. Still, if you're in the market for a combination of etherealness and stompy beats, and aren't too finicky about overall quality, you might want to give this disc a listen.
Contact Information:
Post: 11691 Chapman Ave, Bonita Springs, FL, 34135
Phone:
(941) 495-3767
Email: promo@butterflymessiah.com
Web: http://www.butterflymessiah.com
