Album Review: The Abominable Iron Sloth - The Id Will Overcome

Formed as a side project back in 2004 by four members of a Sacramento hardcore punk outfit called Will Haven, the Abominable Iron Sloth now return with The Id Will Overcome, the anticipated follow up to their self-titled debut. Fans of Will Haven will immediately feel right at home with lead vocalist Justin Godffrey, who has a very similar vocal style to that of Haven's Grady Avenell, However, since Iron Sloth is a doom-metal band, the instrumentation itself is quite different, as there is now less emphasis put on the usual verse/chorus structure and much more emphasis on creating a certain mood.

The Id Will Overcome is sure to please fans of trenchant doom-metal, especially if they like it slow, sludgy and stupid. The guitars are ridiculously down-tuned, almost to a pointless degree; what notes you can make out are usually drowned out by massive amounts of feedback and unintelligible vocals. Lead singer Justin Godfrey's voice is the absolute picture of a tormented mind. Too bad it's so difficult to understand what he's so upset about.

The album does “rock” pretty hard though for those that do the enjoy the occasional head-bang. “Two Black Helicopters” does move at a solid pace, and perfectly expresses whatever angst-y, paranoid expressions that it apparently aims for. The same could be said for many of the other tracks on Id because for the most part, they are virtually interchangeable aside from some changes in tempo. Breaking up the monotony is the very, very odd instrumental “Heterodox Nonconformists,” which creates an unsettling, eerie atmosphere with a sequence of spooky thuds and distorted sound effects.

As gloomy as the vibe of the music may be, you can tell by some of the song titles (“The timely death of Billy Mays” comes to mind) that these guys are having fun. Furthermore, The Id Will Overcome is actually quite breezy for having 12 tracks. It's just going to a appeal to a very small niche of metal fans, namely those who want to piss off their parents or their neighbors or anyone over the age of thirty. If that isn't the goal, Id is eminently skippable; there really isn't much here that hasn't been done more interestingly or competently elsewhere.