New York City's
Vile didn't last long enough to land a record deal, and based on their self-financed, self-titled debut album of 1998, it's easy to see why. Instrumental opener "Lost in Fog" pretty much says it all with its title, since the band's indistinctive blend of stoner rock and heavy metal is generally marred by lackluster songwriting and lousy, low-budget sound quality. Sliding by with hardly a hook for the listener to latch on to, subsequent offerings like "Volintine" and "Neverbody" don't even sound like finished songs, really, while half-hearted attempts at ignition such as "Pollywog" and "Your Aura" never manage to get off the ground. Things improve just a tad during the disc's second half, with the mildly interesting backing keyboard swathes of "Tarantula Vorseta" nearly making it possible to ignore the fact that it's yet another instrumental, and the surprisingly energetic "The Force," arguably qualifying as the first decently recorded track on the L.P.. Less effective is the drawn out denouement of eight-minute capper "The Sequel," which, to add insult to injury, would not require a sequel.