Album Review: Kadavar - For The Dead Travel Fast

I've been making this point on-and-off for a few years now, and I'll say it again at the start of this review; 'vintage' rock band are almost all terrible. I adore Graveyard, and the first Blues Pills album was amazing, but those are the rare exceptions of these sorts of bands knowing how to write good songs. For the most part, they are so wrapped up in recreating the sound of the past, and crowing about recording to tape when they do, that they don't understand what the whole point of being in a band is. Kadavar is one of those bands in that category, at least in my eyes, because they have yet to write a single song that has stuck with me. They sound good, but there's nothing there. They are empty calories.

Speaking of that, there's nothing that puts me in a worse mood than wasting my time. The first track on the record is the two minute "The End", which is a mix of a long silence, some wind, and a very short build of instruments. Essentially, it's absolutely nothing other than space that could have been used for real music, or better yet, cut entirely, since it detracts from the record. It sure as hell doesn't add anything.

Moving on to the songs that matter, Kadavar has embraced a sound that sounds like the past, but not in the way they want it to. This record doesn't sounds like the organic, natural productions of the time. No, it sounds like a vinyl record that's been sitting around since 1972, with enough fuzz, echo, and poor mixing to make Black Sabbath's debut sound like a gem. And considering how fast and cheap that was recorded, being worse is a big black mark on Kadavar. At least the production stops the retched falsetto vocals in "Evil Forces" from coming through the mix even more than they do. I already want to plug my ears when they come along, but if they were as high in the mix as vocals should be, I'm not sure how I would ever make it through the song.

As I was saying at the start, Kadavar is one of those bands that doesn't write great songs, so little thing matter more. I could forgive some production issues if the music is great, but it's not. Especially when we get to "Children Of The Night", the only impression I get from the music is that of a Ghost demo. It sounds like a rough sketch of a better band, something that got cut from the running when it was clear the song wasn't going to be turned into anything better.

Listening to Kadavar, I keep asking myself one question; why should I be listening to them, when there are other bands who do this same thing far better than them? They don't have a great guitar player, or a great singer, or any elements to the music that I could convince myself are worth giving them another chance for. I hear this cloudy mess of music, and there isn't anything I want to hear again. Maybe there could be if it didn't make me think my ears were plugged, but this record isn't pleasant to listen to. I feel like I need a hearing aid, which isn't a good thing to be saying.

Kadavar have been around long enough now that I'm not going to cut them any slack for being a band still finding their way. They know enough at this point to have deliberately chosen to make a record like this. If they aren't able to write better songs, that's fine. Not everyone can. But everyone can choose not to make a record whose sound pushes you away. Kadavar went down that route, and I'm not going with them. Maybe I'll give them another chance in a few years, if they want to move into the current millenium, but if they're staying in the past, I hope their time capsule stays buried in my backyard. I don't want to hear it again.