#28: East of the Wall - RessentimentAfter basically falling in love with the band's follow-up, The Apologist, I just had to get some of their other albums. I was pretty certain I wouldn't like either of them as much, but I still figured I'd get a good amount of great music out of them both. Was I right in the case of Ressentiment?
Well... yes, and no. If I'm gonna be blunt, there's only three tracks here that reach the quality of the majority of The Apologist; Wisp of Tow, Fleshmaker, and Maybe I'm Malaised. As well, The Ladder and Handshake in Your Mouth are among my least favorite tracks from the band, though they're still both pretty solid.
I think where this album fails for me a little is the lack of really memorable moments. There's still plenty, to be sure; the climactic middle of Salieri with the horns, the majority of Wisp of Tow but especially the riff that kicks in around 2 minutes, pretty much any moment of Fleshmaker as well, especially the heavier ones, the thumping bass and drum groove in the middle of Maybe I'm Malaised, the break at 4:35 of A Long Defeat is a really neat moment, the groove of Beasteater at 5:30 into the track. There's a lot of other little moments that I like a fair bit, and really not a lot that I dislike, but there's not a constant stream of them in most tracks like The Apologist has.
And it's really not fair to compare this album to that one, even if I kind of reflexively end up doing so. On its own? This is a damn fine record, really, though definitely a difficult one to get into. Basically every element that makes The Apologist work is here too.
The drum work on this album is incredible, ridiculously diverse and really great at driving the feel of the song without ever feeling excessive. Wisp of Tow has a strong drum-driven groove to it, Ocean of Water is just loaded with really cool drum moments, Fleshmaker as well, though the most interesting moment is this brief bit of muted hihats in a really straightforward time, it works really well and I can't explain why. The chorus in the earlier parts of A Long Defeat is punctuated by a really intense drum moment, and a lot of interesting polyrhythmic stuff in Beasteater. It's plenty satisfying stuff.
The bass on this album... honestly, the tone here is probably even better than on The Apologist, really juicy and thick. it just sounds excellent. Practically every track has a cool bass moment in it somewhere, too; the break in the middle of The Ladder, the sludgy intro of Salieri, a really meaty bassline at 4:45 of Fool's Errand, again basically every part of Wisp of Tow, the guitar/bass harmonies of Ocean of Water and the jazzy break in the middle, the groove of the "give it away" section in Fleshmaker, the entirety of Maybe I'm Malaised, the dark bassline of Gordian Corridor, and the fantastic groove at the start of Beasteater. It's really satisfying in regards to the bass, easily.
Vocally this album is a bit weaker than The Apologist; a lot more harsh vocals here, and while they sound fine there's a bit too many for my tastes. Most of my favorite vocal moments are clean-sung; the horn climax of Salieri, the melancholy of the second half of Fool's Errand, around 1:35 of Fleshmaker where the song drops out for a cleaner moment, the aforementioned early choruses of A Long Defeat have a ton of power behind them. That's not to say the harsh vocals don't have their moments; the climax at the end of Ocean of Water is driven by some intense vocals, the harsh vocals of the heavier moments of Fleshmaker and even the lighter "give it away" bits, the groove at 2:40 of Beasteater also has some pretty intense harsh vocals. It's solid overall in this regard, though not fantastic.
The guitar work on this album covers pretty much every bass I can think of; there's a fair number of dissonant moments, especially in The Ladder, there's the jazzy moments of Salieri, Wisp of Tow, Ocean of Water, Fleshmaker, and Beasteater, all of which are primarily driven by the guitars. There's some pretty intense riffs, the aforementioned riff in Wisp of Tow, the main riff of Ocean of Water, the intense chugging of Fleshmaker, the chugging of Don't Stop Bereaving, the groove of the riff at 2:40 of Beasteater. There's a ton of pretty post-rock-ish moments scattered throughout on most every track. There's even some guitar solos, really jagged and sloppy ones in Salieri and Handshake in Your Mouth, with more melodic-oriented ones in Ocean of Water and Beasteater.
The album really does have a lot of flavor, too; I can't think of any other band who would put the jazzy elevator music break It's Always Worthwhile... on their album, for one, and the jazziness throughout the album is quite pleasant. There's a good variety of moods in general; dissonant, heavy, melodic, atmospheric, sludgy. It's got a little of everything... and that may be its downfall, perhaps it tries to do a bit too much and ends up a bit incohesive as a result. Sure, each track is plenty unique, but do they all belong together on the same album? That, I'm not so sure of. I think if the album had been stripped down a little and refined in general it would've come out a lot better; basically, exactly what I imagine happened to The Apologist, which is 15 minutes shorter and has only the tiniest of fat that could be possibly trimmed.
But I digress. Do I like this album? Yeah. I'm still not sure I quite "get" it. Enough time has passed now that I can be fairly certain it's never going to be my jam like The Apologist is, but it's still a record I see myself revisiting. Not a great record, and a bit of a messy one on the whole, but still pretty solid with a lot of good music on it.
Favorite Tracks: Fleshmaker, Wisp of Tow, Maybe I'm Malaised, Ocean of Water
Least Favorite Tracks: Handshake in Your Mouth, The Ladder
7.75/10DTF Addendum: This album frustrates me because it's got moments of brilliance in some of the mid-tier songs and the entire run from Wisp of Tow to Maybe I'm Malaised is about on par with The Apologist but the album is dragged down by its weaker moments. Most notably, all of the Biclops tracks are among my favorites here, so I'm wondering where the weaker ones came from after the merge. I feel like this album has a very troubled backstory and it's practically a compilation album that they could've refined into something so much better, but agh. They delivered with their follow-up anyways, so I don't know why I'm complaining.