Review: I SHALT BECOME – “Poison”

I Shalt Become – Poison
released June 22, 2010 on Moribund Records

Rating: 3/5

I Shalt Become is impressive, for a one-man project. Poison should be considered Black Metal, but only in the mysterious sense. It’s not heavy or fast, but it also doesn’t have the softness to really be post-black. The overall feel is dismal and melancholic. At times it’s a wall of noise. There are definitely some memorable melodies in here, but a lot of the melodies seem random and not thought through.

Poison relies heavily on synthesizers, which might be okay, because the guitars sound like balls, like they were recorded directly without a DI box. Sometimes the keys just sound silly like in the intro of “No Quarter at the Somme” and in “Leaving Watership Down”. “Ghosts” on the other hand, has much better composed synth work.

The overall music style and production resembles that of other names in US Black Metal, namely Xasthur and Velvet Cacoon. There also a lot of similarities to the Pakistan band, Taarma. Just slow it down a bunch. Though the album speeds up a little with “The Swarming of the Locusts” which is one of the better tracks on the album.

If you can get through a slow Black Metal album, you might like this one. Just don’t complain to me about the awkward midi programming. I didn’t write them.

Try: 2, 5. 7, 9

1. Like a Lamb to the Slaughter…
2. Black Swan Events
3. Harlow’s Vertical Chamber Apparatus
4. No Quarter at the Somme
5. Ghosts
6. Leaving Watership Down
7. The Swarming of the Locusts
8. Doubt
9. The Finest Cut of the Scalpel
10. Absolve Me