Style: progressive metal, djent, post-rock (clean vocals, majority instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Plini, I Built the Sky, Nick Johnston, Marco Sfogli
Country: UK
Release date: 17 July, 2024
I guess I just can’t help myself. Yes, right on the heels of Sean Ashe, I’m checking out “Just another instrumental-guitar-bedroom project,” as Ashwin Pathiyath describes himself. On the plus side, since Chris and Andy have vowed to listen to every album reviewed on the blog, I won’t have to suffer alone! Now, maybe that’s an unfair way to start a review; first impressions, as they say, are everything, and here I am getting us off to a very negative start while offering barely any idea of what the album sounds like. So without further ado, let’s get into the meat of it!
As it turns out, it’s not all bad news. Older Than Sin is not quite your standard solo guitarist work, and Ashwin Pathiyath fights back against the oppressive same-ness of djent with a few fun features from other influences such as post-rock and math rock. From the ambient, post-rock-esque opening of the title track to the spacey, faded-out vocals which follow, Ashwin shows creativity and a drive to take his music in a unique and personal direction. The typical djent guitar chugs and energetic drum rhythms still make their presence known throughout the album, but Older Than Sin is more defined by the little custom touches, adding a much-needed form of variety and expression which helps capture the listener’s attention and progress the music through its metamorphosis.
After this brief breath of fresh air and experimentation, the followup track reminds the audience what kind of monotony was missing thus far. “Little Feelings” doesn’t so much develop as spin around in circles for six and a half minutes, repeating melodies and rhythms unendingly until it finally fades out, as though even the composer couldn’t quite figure out how to bring it to an end. Every section flows aimlessly like a water park ride designed by M.C. Escher, an impossible ouroboros with no beginning or end. There’s an overall aesthetic beauty to it, a vacant mood that fills the space like a minimalist painting, but without the same artistic vision or the slow build and climax that characterizes other minimalist music genres like post-rock. In retrospect, even the title track suffered from much of the same over-repetition, but the variety on display among its tableau of influences was sufficient to distract from its uniformity, at least for a time.
The greatest variety throughout Older Than Sin comes from its layering of different instrumental parts on top of each other. In an almost math rock-like fashion, tracks like “Little Feelings” and “Ravens Nest” fill out their busier sections with colorful terraces of drums, keyboard effects, and guitars both electric and acoustic. Although it’s not enough to redeem the album from its flat composition, these small successes still prevent it from being totally forgettable. That said, even bringing back vocals for the closing track “Time and Tenses” does little to mix up the formula. In addition to the final song being just as plagued by all the same issues of repetition as the rest, the vocal delivery sounds halfhearted, almost bored, where the track—and the album as a whole—would have greatly benefited from the unique infusion of energy best supplied by an invested vocalist.
Ashwin Pathiyath remains shackled by djent’s original sin, not offering enough that’s individual or groundbreaking and instead laying an old and worn out mesh of styles and aesthetics over uninspired, meandering composition. The musicianship on display passes muster, but with lackluster vocal delivery and programmed drums undercutting the care and poise taken with the guitar parts, it’s hard to get excited about the end result. Even with colorful touches of post-rock and math rock inspiration, Older Than Sin leaves little impression of its own in the end, and just fades out forgettably like the ending of one of its own directionless tracks.
Recommended tracks: Older Than Sin
You may also like: Divinex, Asymmetric Universe, Jakub Tirco
Final verdict: 4/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram
Label: Independent
Ashwin Pathiyath is:
– Ashwin Pathiyath (everything)
– Alex Mallin (drum programming)
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