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Jayden Panesso

DOOMSDAY MOURNING: NEGLIGENT ACTS OF CALCULATED RECKLESSNESS

(TO THE POINT RECORDS; 2014)

Doomsday Mourning - Negligent Acts of Calculated Recklessness

I’m always a little leery when reviewing albums like Doomsday Mourning’s NEGLIGENT ACTS OF CALCULATED RECKLESSNESS. Musically, the sound is a down-tuned, machine-gun-fast pummeling with enough experimentation and diversity to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, the downfall – as with most genre efforts – is lyrically and vocally; Jorge Colon (the primary vocalist and, I’m assuming, lyricist) just doesn’t vary his retching, vomiting style enough to engage any listener except hardcore fans of the band. As the title suggests, this could be a calculated move by the New York grime-core progenitors; you know… give the people what they want and always dance with the one that brung ya. To be fair though, there does seem to be an odd free-form poetry vibe on a couple of tracks that isn’t totally displeasing; things that don’t come close to rhyming, with no discernable metre to the delivery.

The album’s intro, called “Bombs,” is an intriguing blip that sounds exactly like the title implies and reminds me of early Throbbing Gristle. It’s a promising start; I just with it was longer. “Bombs” segues into “Externalities,” the first vocal track and the first of six tunes with guest vocalists (who, like rappers guesting on pop songs or other rap tunes, are generally superfluous or totally indistinguishable from the main vocalist and other guests). The song is pretty much what you’d expect. I got a sore throat just listening to Colon‘s voice. Without coming up for air, the boys launch into “Imposed Attrition,” taking a more subtle approach to quite good effect. Rapper Michael Cro guests. The album’s latest single, “Perception Management,” features guest vocals from Sylar’s Jayden Panesso and a staccato beat that bores into your brain. Panesso, by the way, gets bonus points for the HEROES reference regarding his band’s moniker.

Doomsday Mourning (uncredited photo)
Doomsday Mourning (uncredited photo)

The middle section of the record is fairly pedestrian, with nothing new to offer, either vocally or musically, though drummer Danny Grossarth continues to impress, with a series of pulverizing, adventurous rhythmic choices. Track seven, Cold Hell,” features an interesting dive bombing thing by bassist Evan Buksbaum and guitarists Dennis Rivera and Stephen Dilaro, sounding particularly cool alongside the massive drum attack. The final track, “Methodical, Exacting and Patient,” is the best pure music number with a processed, compressed sound that is unlike anything else on NEGLIGENT ACTS… , leaving the listener with an uncomfortable sense of claustrophobia. There’s a very progressive-sounding guitar solo that adds to the disconnect. The song actually approaches perfection, with the vocal the only thing keeping it from attaining that lofty height. You know, the more I think about it and the more I listen to the album, the whole thing would have made a great instrumental record. Even though there are problems here, I would still be interested in the band’s next release, to see if they continue to explore some of the more experimental sounds found on NEGLIGENT ACTS OF CALCULATED RECKLESSNESS.