www.metalcovenant.com 03/07

Joint Depression is a Finnish band that has been around since the early nineties and have done a bunch of demos, and now even a DVD is one the way. Not bad for a bad that do it all themselves and whose main idea is to compose melancholic depression metal music. Despite the genre description, this doesn't depress me the least, actually I find this to be very intriguing and, well, not up lifting but captivating at least.

The music from Joint Depression is dark, suggestive and melancholia seems to be what they are feeding of. It is highly competent technical and progressive metal the band deliver and I would commit a crime as a reviewer if I wouldn't draw any parallels to Tool. The American band is inevitably the biggest source of inspiration for the Finnish guys. At many times the melodies are in likeness with Tool, those that are of the kind that come lurking on you. The similarities are also in the structures of the songs, meaning that they are slowly building up the tension. KS 3.7 The Legend, which is one of the better songs on Savage Infinity, somewhat shows a good example of that.

Along with the Tool vibes you can also find traces of grunge in their sound as well. Going To Come has with the chorus some clear resemblances even if there are other elements of contemporary metal to find there as well. Even though I am not overly familiar with the bands Amorphis and Sentenced, I would like to say that there are some similarities to find there too, at least in Perfect Scythe that is more metal oriented and with the melancholic melody-lines, it comes out as the Finnish metal from the previously mentioned bands.

Joint Depression bring on more of the aggression at times as well, the songs can be pending from calm to chaotic within the blink of an eye even if they never let the aggression fully take over. Savage Infinity is in general performed with the necessary tightness from the band that shows the skill of mature and complex song writing. I especially like how they make several melody-lines intertwine with each other from the bass and the two guitars at times, something that I would to see them do more of. Although, there are some objections I must hold against them though. The Tool influences can be too much at times, or too obvious is perhaps a better word. Moreover, even if the style differs a bit between the songs, seventeen of them are too many, as they do not diverse enough from each other to justify that many, it becomes too much of the same in the end. But on the other hand, if you are an unsigned band shopping for a deal it is good to show what you got. However, if the band is ever releasing a full-length album through a label I would sincerely recommend them to shorten the album, perhaps not in length but at least with the number of songs.

Performance 9

Originality 7

Production 6

Vocals 5

Songwriting 7

6 chalices of 10 - Thomas