Putting a question mark after a word does wonders for voice inflection. Case in point, when Blistering’s dog Goji wants to go for a walk, simply saying “Walk?” instantly sends him into a frenzy. Being the cruel human this scribe really is, sometimes “Walk?” will be used intermittently throughout the day, even though is no intention of taking Mr. Pups for a walk. And let’s not forget how the sorely-missed vernacular of Valley Girls, who made their living (or mall activities) out of making every statement one of unintentional inquiry. (For a trip down memory lane, view this video courtesy of Moon Unit Zappa.)
Since Whyzdom’s second album Blind? is so standard female-fronted fare, the above thinking-aloud portion was necessary, as means to navigate through the band’s dime-a-dozen ideas. Symphonic metal with a female singer is gradually starting to lose its universal sound, as a lot of the bands now have the propensity to elude standard song conventions, preferring more ideas and less quality vocal ideas, thus complicating the batch. In essence, it prevents the female singer in question (Elvyne Lorient) from being able to have any showboating moments. Rather than making her the point of emphasis, Lorient has to work around at least ten tempo shifts, silly keyboard frill, and noticeable lack of guitar girth per song. That’s no way to help a fledging young singer, isn’t it?
Suffice it to say, the compositions that make up Blind? (11 in all) really got away from Whyzdom. Generally, a case of streamlining things goes a long way toward appealing to the lowest common denominator, which for female-fronted metal bands, is the right target audience. We all could learn a lot from dogs…they are the masters of simplicity and immediate satisfaction. If only certain bands would follow suit.
(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)