www.lordsofmetal.nl 03/07

Joint Depression is an independent band (no record label or distribution deals involved so far) who releases its first full length album, entitled 'Savage Infinity', in a new fresh line-up. Vocalist/guitarist Antti Karhu is new, but the band has been around since the early nineties and made a large number of demos in that time. Recently they even released a DVD. I notice that they used to have a female singer and previously had been labelled as gothic metal, but that is the past, for here we are dealing with an album that will appeal to fans of Tool and A Perfect Circle. They live in Oulu, Finland - where Sentenced is native of as well - and that is the place where this album was recorded at the Hellgate Studios with the help of Jukka Jokikokko between February 2006 and January 2007.

Let us now focus on the seventeen tracks on 'Savage Infinity'. The melancholic, depressive metal is best listened to with headphones, a bottle of good wine within reach and go with the flow. That is what the band itself suggests. It is a rollercoaster of pulsating sounds with lots of distortion on guitars, clean dreamy vocals with a screaming echo sometimes. The music has a kind of trance inducing effect and for instance in songs like 'Lacerate' and 'KS 3.7 The Legend' they work with Tool alike textures. The songs have a proper compactness and develop from calm, introspective nature with a slightly intellectual aura to savage eruptions uttering lashings of frustration. Emotional and often relished with psychedelic overtones. On the other hand the entire album breathes any grunge influences. The beginning of 'Second Fall' is influenced by the poetic obscurity of the Doors. Since there are so many songs on the album and it has a length of almost seventy minutes, it finally loses some strength. It lacks enough tension and the songs are becoming too similar. But when we can say "too much of a good thing" as principal minus for a debut album, I would like to conclude that this is a seminal band anyway. And their spirit of enterprise and creativity is admirable.

77/100

Review Vera