Time in Malta – Alone With The Alone / 2004 Equal Vision / 12 Tracks / http://www.timeinmalta.com / http://www.equalvision.com / Reviewed 19 September 2004
While I will have individuals from all the whatever-the-hellcore is popular this week jumping on me for this review, Time in Malta plays a very compelling type of metal that incorporates some melody, not unlike Corrosion of Conformity or Alice in Chains during the early to mid 1990s. Brutal riffs and straight-forward drumming makes for a brutal combination, as Todd’s vocals provide the more melodic side of things. While there are flashes of a cohesion holding the band together, tracks like “Tightrope” show the band at sometimes working at odds, with Todd’s voice never holding onto that melodic timbre for more than a few seconds. The guitar work laid down by Chris finally comes to some sort of fruition during the fourth cut, “Louder Than Bombs”. Instead of rivaling Adam’s drum, Chris creates lines that are simple but cutting. The brief punk-tempo interludes during “Louder Than Bombs” make the track one of the more memorable on the disc, even with Adam’s drums pushing the high end way into the red, causing a jangling distortion that makes any listening to the disc harder.
Just like Time In Malta’s harder, metal side, their emo-rock side is sold, but not necessarily the epitome of the genre. Todd’s vocals on “Ghosts” are impressive, drawing on the high amount of emotion ey puts into each line, but the guitar laid down seems a little too mechanical to properly fuse. A number of the tracks on “Alone With The Alone” try their hardest to connect with the listeners, but just feel as if the band is singing and working purely to please themselves, exuding a cold air. “Fused As One” uses some simple riffs that verge on the edge of repetitiveness, a forgettable track that gives away to the much more brutal and rough nature of “Perform The Surgery”.
“Alone With The Alone” is an album that never really gets off the ground, even if the music contained within is very musically efficient. The lack of warmth that would endear the band to its listeners is lost, and while their goal might be to portray a very down-and-dirty sound, there is still always the ability to win listeners with a warm sound. Even the most brutal bands, bands like Slayer, can make an album like Reign in Blood, have it be one of the most hard albums of the last twenty years, and have a welcoming sound. Even if a track of “Event Horizon” can make that jump, nine tracks before on “Alone With The Alone” can’t.
Top Tracks: Event Horizon, Louder Than Bombs
Rating: 4.8/10