Terrortory
The seed left behind
Discouraged Records
This is the debut album by the Swedish crew and it must be said from the offset that there's a distinct blandness about it that's not only down to the production, but also because of a terrible attempt at emulating past success. Terrortory's thing seems to be to write tunes in the styles of a heap of already-revered bands, stick them all together, and hope for a winning formula. In Flames, The Haunted, Opeth, Sentenced and a shitload of others that are familiar but that I can't quite put my finger on are referenced here, none of which are mimicked to the point where you could say the material that Terrortory has written is better. There's also a tiny bit of old school Metallica to be found on some of the melodic parts and, while those are actually okay, this album as a whole is a very uninspiring -- indeed, a very boring -- listen. The production does get part of the blame despite the fact that everything is clear and bright, it's just that there's a lack of any punch whatsoever, even in the album's better moments. It's quite possible that when faced with material as dull and repetitive as this producer Henrik Wiklund simply lost the will to live. I know I did.
- John Norby
