Review: Black Sheep Wall - I'm Going to Kill Myself
By Eric Perzanowski, Staff Writer
[Season of Mist; 2015]
Rating: 7/10
Key Tracks: “The Wailing and the Gnashing and the Teeth,” “Metallica”
Black Sheep Wall’s newest album, I’m Going To Kill Myself, is something of an enigma. From the get-go it's perplexing, with its blunt title and the bizarre cover featuring two creatures that look like they could be characters in the next Monsters, Inc. film. Even the band’s name originates from a cheat code from Starcraft.
The quirkiness of the aforementioned imagery translates to the music as well. The first time I had ever listened to Black Sheep Wall, I was amazed. There seemed to be several styles coalescing into a single, cohesive sound. I couldn’t definitively pinpoint a band that sounded just like it, or a specific genre that the music fell into.
The opening track “The Wailing and the Gnashing and the Teeth” is a polarizing one that showcases a different side of Black Sheep Wall. The sludgy, down-tuned riffs are replaced by soft, melancholic chords, and the deep, almost guttural growls that have traditionally been present in Black Sheep Wall’s work are now high-pitched screams and wails (this can also be chalked up to a lineup change).
“The Wailing and the Gnashing…” definitely has a post-hardcore feel to it from the vocals, and the lyrics contain a lot of woeful frustration and self-disappointment (“This city stole my plans/ I used to be an honest man / Fuck this band”), which some may label “emo.” It would have been easy to hate this song if it’s execution wasn’t so well done. The emotional depth of the vocals made me sympathize with the struggles that vocalist Brandon Gillichbauer expresses in this song.
About halfway through this song, a much deeper, vocal track plays in addition to the original screams and wails heard throughout the song. This voice sounds comparable to throat-singing (in fact, it just may be that), and its deep smoothness contrasts the abrasive screams in such a way that make it near impossible to stop listening.
Musically, the rest of the album fits in with the rest of Black Sheep Wall’s material, though in this case, fitting in means being different. The vocals are obviously a departure from previous sounds, as the band has had several different vocalists over the years. The variation is expected, and feels right at home on this latest release.
Four songs make up the 62-minute album length, including the 33-minute track “Metallica.” It can be tedious if one doesn’t have the patience, mostly considering the repetition of riffs.
“Metallica” is the massive final track of the album. What’s great about this song is that it takes its time, and lets the several riffs drone on for minutes at a time. I’ll admit that I’m not always one to have the patience to endure long, doomy songs, but there’s something hypnotic and captivating about the style of these riffs, a trait that I can recall from several other Black Sheep Wall songs. The song culminates over the final five minutes with a groovy down-tempo riff, with the album’s namesake being shouted repeatedly.
The two songs sandwiched in the middle, “Tetsuo The Dead Man” and “White Pig,” have several great moments throughout, but altogether both seem like standard Black Sheep Wall material. This isn’t an insult by any means; these tracks simply don’t stand out or have the same appeal as the first and final tracks.
While some of the material may divide fans of the band’s previous material, I’m Going To Kill Myself is an interesting new chapter in the band’s career.
