How the mighty have seemingly fallen. At one time, one of the most influential and watched bands of the extreme underground, Candiria, helped pave the way for a handful of jazz-tinged, hard core/metal bands, i.e. Dillinger Escape Plan.
Then the unthinkable happened. The collective band’s lives almost came to an end with a nearly fatal auto accident, hence the album’s title and artwork. Apparently, the band had an epiphany: not to die broke. So they hooked up with producer and label founder David Bendeth who has worked with Vertical Horizon, Breaking Benjamin and similarly shitty bands with similarly shitty sounds. Songs like “Remove Yourself,” “Down,” and “I Am” could have easily been handled by one of those bands.
A few bright spots include “1000 Points of Light” and the set-closing instrumental “The Rutherford Experiment.” But with the weaker tracks, like the straight (weak) hip-hop of “9mm Solution,” the few listen-able moments are not worth the price of admission.
I can appreciate the catharsis of the lyrics, the whole re-evaluation of life, sorting your priorities and finding out what’s real, but musically, I can’t hang. Candiria is a band who will continue to grow (?), so I’m not writing them off. . .yet.
