"Gothic" are from Genova and exist since 1989. This is their 11th release. The ill minded leader of the project is called James Jason. "Grim" is a "complex" work consisting of 3 CDs: double audio CD (of total more than 100 minutes duration) split in two parts Act I, (1st CD) and Act II, (2nd CD) and Multimedia content CD-R. At least they are quantitative. Since they suggested starting from the Multimedia CD-R, I will do so. It contains:

"Gothic" Pictures (black & white drawings), Band photos, a Powerpoint Grim's Presentation file, 4 PDFs containing respectively information about Band Members, Grim Lyrics, Discography and Biography and finally "Forlorn" video clip, which is psycho, naïve and bad directed. There are some computer effects; the major scenes were taken in leafless forest. At the end some so called scary faces appear. And now to the gist. According to the description the band gives, Act I is a electrogoth IDM with many gothic "prog" elements, while Act II is slightly more avant-garde with some industrial post-metal and EBM trance elements. I have no reason to disagree. However I don't think there is a reasonable human being who would like listening to this think.

Act I begins with an industrial Intro. Plenty industrial with some guitar elements are obvious at "Forlorn". "Wintered Wings" has some interesting Renaissance keyboards but they are passed through the minching machine of the vomitive samples. The first half of the huge (almost 20 minutes!) "Splinters Inside" is a typical example of talentless composition, while there is some improvement in the second half, which is the only tolerable moment of Act I. There is no point to comment Act II, which is even worse. Generally speaking "Gothic" have some primitive avant-garde and surrealistic elements, however this is a mask to hide their luck of music knowledge. Here is another example of their vanity. The 6th -74th tracks of Act I and the 9th-89th of Act II last 4 seconds each and are blank like their heads. The 75th and the 90th tracks respectively, are outros. It is obvious the guys want just to impress. "Grim" has a little relation to music. It is ideal for torturing Iraqi prisoners. (The readers should by no means think that I support the invasion. Exactly the opposite. I just use the stories of the press, without believing them, for the simple reason that Americans have more advanced torturing technology than music. If the inhuman monsters, the torturers, listen to Heavy Metal while torturing this is another story.)

This "music" would fit better to a schizoid, electro, trance, EBM, whatever party or to a badly designed computer game but definitely not to an average Metal fan. The only positive think I find in this release is the good command of computer technology. Grim has been released after 4 years of meticulous work and every song is composed by 40-80 digital tracks arranged by a professional digital studio arranger. Did they really spend 4 years for such a "Masterpiece"? Fancy the result if the work was done in less time and not so "meticulous", but offhand. The listeners should have found an effective way to protect their ears! I am curious how sound their earlier 10 demos that normally should be even worse. It is a pity they come from Genova, which has contributed a lot to human culture.

For those who want to test the strength of their nerves "Grim" is highly recommended. All the others far away!!!

written by Panayiotis Papandreopoulos

Playing time: 101.40