You know you're in for some serious music when your album begins with what can only be described as a mood piece. A piece of music of no consequence at all that lulls you into what is to follow. A cursory glance over the song titles confers this as we see a pattern emerging. 'Military Wive', 'The Battle of the Sinkhole'...these are not love songs. Even the name Bovine conjures up images of meat racks.
So it is with second song 'Ghost Chair', Bovine set out their stall. All pummelling riffs and vocals lifted straight out of a Deftones songs this is emotional metal of a different ilk to the panda eyed hordes. Shades of nu-metal are abound but there is also a technical ability which always seemed amiss among the majority of that scene.
The main issue is that there are too many ideas, snatches of disembodied voices drift out of the mix whilst the vocals strain to be heard over the music. Thankfully this changes with 'Thank Fuck I Ain't You' being a welcome breather. That's not to say things have calmed down, its just that the music has more chance to breathe.
This is where Bovine's power really shows, on songs such as the superb title track and the aforementioned 'The Battle of the Sinkhole', they stretch out and let the gaps in the music do the talking. Sometimes it isn't about filling in every space possible and a pause can say a million words.
Lyrically its difficult to discern what is going on. One can imagine visions of war and possibly some sort of analogy with a dying British Empire but this is lost in the tumult of music. Not a bad thing by any means as this is more than enough to keep you going.
After a while it tends to get a bit similar but ultimately it is a very satisfying album. Yes, there are moments where the band get over excited and a tad too serious but given time and experience they should be able to iron these out. When Bovine are good, they are up there with the great bands of whatever scene this may be. At the end of the day its metal, its loud and technically its very astute. A welcome addition.
