Tapewyrm - Triptych

This is perhaps the first time you'll be finding me saying this about Tapewyrm, the harsh noise project based out of the United Kingdom, but I find myself quite a bit bored with the sounds that emit from his latest album Triptych. It's not that his style has changed all that much or anything like that; the chaos and hard hitting, noisey and static filled bass rhythms are all still there and included. So fans of Tapewyrm will no doubt recognize and enjoy the songs by a massive amount. However, where the album falls short is not the crushing beats but the length of said songs and how they do not change throughout their duration. 

When I first started the album and Nemesis played I thought I was in for something fit for a king – if only the king in question was a sadistic bastard and wanted to see his enemies ripped apart by a poor, feral boy with sharpened fingernails. The clanging electronics and ruthless sound design was adoring and lovely. However, after about two minutes into this song I had experienced everything it had to offer and I didn't find reason to go back through the entire five minutes all over again. 

And that's pretty much how I felt throughout the entirety of the album on each and every song. I would get pumped up and thrashing about for the first couple of minutes but after that I wanted to skip the track and move onto the next one. It's especially a daunting task when some of the tracks have nearly a nine minute length; sometimes even more. 

I think that if Tapewyrm were to change up the beats three or four times within a nine minute song then it would be much more alluring. He has the sound bank to do so, now he just needs to prove it. I think that a supercut of the album with two or three minute snippets from each track graciously flowing from one into the next lasting for about a half hour would be simply astonishing. It would be a punishment to the ears, no doubt, but a punishment I'd be willing to sit through with a crooked smile on my face. 

So, in all fairness, I have to give this album a six out of ten. Not Tapewyrm's best showing in his discography, but a promising one that needs to fix a few things before his true potential shines through.