Rue: Thorns

Bookended with the beautiful acoustic title track, Thorns – Rue's first full length in eight years – begins and ends on a high but what lies between is sadly a little less promising. 'Brown' is abrasive and melodic but at five minutes – about two minutes too long – soon becomes a trudge, which is a real shame as there are some truly exquisite moments within the track, such as the vocal line in the chorus. 'For Thousands of Years' offers promise with an impressive opening and a grimly distorted bass-line groove, and the subdued segment towards the close of the track stands out. At seven and a half minutes, 'Sadaver' is another track that is too long; what Rue are doing here is interesting but only in that there are scattered fragments of substance, such as the lead work about six minutes in. The album is a painful waiting game, waiting for those moments where Rue come forward with something that has substance, depth, something that leaps out of the speakers as musically challenging or innovative. Jeff Fahl's vocals are limited in range and scope so that he relies heavily on a one-dimensional approach of hardcore growls, stepping out once for the mid-tempo 'Storm and Sea' where he attempts to introduce melody. When an album makes you play the waiting game, living in hope of something, anything of any significance emerging only to give up after listening to it for more than a week, it's not good. At sixty five minutes, Thorns would have been much better had they cut it down significantly and crafted the sadly-too-scattered elements into something moving. There is a great album in here, somewhere, but as it stands, this isn't it.

Track Listing:

1. Thorns
2. Brown
3. For Thousands of Years
4. Sadaver
5. Broken Arms Broken Wings
6. Storm and Sea
7. Pressures
8. Choice
9. Strong Will Evolve
10. High Iron Blues
11. Everfailure
12. A Walk of Lies
13. Thorns (Reprise)

Added: November 6th 2011
Reviewer: Jason Guest
Score:
Related Link: Rue on Facebook
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Language: english

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