Despite all the
Godflesh-meets-
Lull type comparisons that are constantly thrown around about this group,
Dread shows this Michigan trio moving deeper into their world of electronic trickery and away from even the slightest hint of standard songwriting. The key to this recording is length, as the songs sacrifice songcraft for building interesting sonic structures to support the rantings of
Nathan Young. And
Young is the glue holding this thing together; without his occasional yelps, the album would collapse under its own pretentiousness. But just as the songs seem to hopelessly meander into the beep-and-click abyss, the ugly and uncaring cries of
Young tend to bring things back into perspective. The tracks don't always go too long. In fact, the epic "Desert of Glue/Wretched Hog" is probably the best song of the bunch. But on that track they slowly build to
Young's appearance, continually layering and adding to the track until his moan appears amongst the echoing clangs. Elsewhere, the album sounds like the listener is trapped in a metal barrel that is slowly rolling down a hill, with the exact same sounds burrowing into the brain until it becomes near unbearable to keep listening. That is the point where they either turn things toward the interesting ("Half Animal, Half Insane") or continue making clamor until the song mercifully dies ("Burn Your House Down"). It's easy to respect the sort of
Throbbing Gristle worship that
Wolf Eyes craft, but it's not quite as easy to actually listen to the music. Brave listeners and Ann Arbor scenesters will probably have no problems getting into this, but it would be hard to recommend this to anyone outside of those two categories. Still, this is adventurous stuff that is a potent sonic weapon when used correctly. Just be warned that the whole package is not as digestible as its individual parts.