El Caco - From Dirt

Published May 16 2007

*=Staff's pick	Beyond Redemption The Ones Remaining Crash & Burn Solid Rest (Seasonal Affective Disorder) Shadows Of Undone Nervous Breakdown Hide & Seek* From Dirt Code Red* Honey Tree Love Delayed White Flag

Genre	Rock/Metal	Öyvind Osa	Vocals
Tracks	11	Anders Gjesti	Guitar
Runningtime	45 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Black Baloon Records	Öyvind Osa	Bass
Release	20 April 2007	Thomas Fredriksen	Drums
Country	Norway	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	D:A:D, System Of A Down

I'm not too enthusiastic to start with, over this mix of rock and metal. It is simply a bit repetitive and character-less. Although a bit progressive in the like of Pain Of Salvation, in songs like Crash & Burn, it does not become exciting enough to explore further. Öyvind Osa's voice is one reason for that. He is a good singer, but he tends to sound a bit weak and becomes monotonous after just a short while. To that From Dirt is a bit too modern in it's production, done by Daniel Bergstrand (In Flames, Meshuggah etc.). Rock should be raw, dirty and… free, not embedded behind some edge cutting walls.

Not until the sixth track Nervous Breakdown Hide & Seek there is a break with the previous and we can breathe a bit more simple rock 'n' roll and speed. In Code Red we can find slightly eastern oriented melodies, which reminds a bit about System of a Down. Honey Tree makes me think about Porcupine Tree in all its dryness. Love Delayed again increases the speed and thrash riffs. The attempt to add a more aggressive voice is welcome, but a bit too unpolished, and the soft parts are too soft. This fourth effort from these three Norwegians simply does not stick. There is talent, there is an idea of a sound, but there are not songs to back it up this time. The riffs and the attitude from the previous releases seem to be gone.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
5	5	3	4	4

Summary
4 chalices of 10 - David