Fax Arcana - The Ritual In Routine (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

Fax Arcana

The Ritual In Routine (2004)

Alone


Holy cow this sounds terrible. I'm talking like the singer from Disturbed awful, because that's what this guy sounds like. Like the fucking singer from Disturbed. I guess that most of these guys are in screamo bands, or used to be. Either way, this is some uninteresting shit. The bass sounds so apathetic, like it doesn't even want to be played, or the guy is ashamed of playing with this band. The guitars are trying to do this artsy-shit where they just noodle around bending at random intervals: think "One Note Song" by Tenacious D. Honestly. This band took a one minute and twenty three second long joke and made a six track EP out of it.

Their lyrics don't make up for it either. "Come to me naked and unashamed. Let me whisper an oblivion in your ear. I'll be the clot in the marrow that sickens your song. I'm the blood up the sleeve." Way to be vague and not the least bit poetic. "When did wake the asp in me with a passion for blasphemy and this so-called craft for crooked nails?" Hey, dipshit. THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE. You can even claim poetics as an excuse for your terrible sentence structure because there is nothing poetic about gibberish meant to be poetic.

Evey song sounds the same. There is no structure or sense to it, which is bad because there is supposed to be. The press sheet said that I'm supposed to "Think Bobby Knight throwing a chair, without the verbal abuse." Tell you the truth, all I can think about is how much I'd rather be making a burrito or playing some Contra III: The Alien Wars on my SNES emulator. In fact, that's what I'll do.