YOB - The Unreal Never Lived

[Liu]

YOB - The Unreal Never Lived
Metal Blade

I have no idea why I'm reviewing this. Its one thing to review an album that you don't like that's in a style that you are familiar with, in my case Thrash or Death Metal for example. But its a completely different thing when you have to review an album that you don't like but its in a style you don't like to begin with. You can't listen objectively and it doesn't really help anyone in the end. Yet I'm still stuck with reviewing said album, so I'll try my best. Oddly, this isn't the first YOB album I've heard. I took a shot in the dark and bought their previous effort, The Illusion Of Motion, back when it came out few years back. I think I've only played the album twice, though the last time I'm sure that I gave up halfway.

YOB plays a massive doom metal, the kind where the songs easily stretch beyond the 10 minute mark and the riffs and chords hum and resonate for a lasting effect. I know there's a big portion of the metal fanbase that eats this stuff up, so YOB will probably do much to satisfy their hunger. Massive riffs abound on The Unreal Never Lived and even though there are only 4 songs on it, its about an hour long. The last song in particular takes up the bulk of the duration, going past 20 minutes. On any other album these monster riffs and chords would easily turn my head, but presented in this overinflated form my ADD just kicks in and I wander about. The music, despite all its doing, is really going nowhere, thus my main gripe with the doom genre. But if you like this stuff, then go for it. Me? I'm gonna bust out my Blind Guardian albums.


01. Quantum Mystic
02. Grasping Air
03. Kosmos
04. The Mental Tyrant

Score: ??/10

[Chris Slack]

Hopefully the latest batch of discs I sent you will be more to your liking