Band : Touch The Spider
Album Title : Tales Of Woe
Label : WhereAreYouFrom Records
Distributor : /
Release Date : 2009
Review : CD

What do you get when you combine the rhythms of Gang Four, the wave non-attitude of Joy Division and the 70s doom sound of Pentagram? Well, you'd probably get something a little like Touch The Spider and their latest CD, Tales of Woe.

In this recipe the band finds its voice and conveys its sonic message with swampy guitars, simple drumming and emphatic, non-emotional vocals. Tales Of Woe is just what this title implies: dark, eerie, and strangely entertaining. The bleak depressive and almost dead feeling of much of this recording is certainly striking out of their two current releases, double album I Spit On Your Grave (Released February 2009) and Souls For Sale (Released July 2009), Tales Of Woe (Released March 2010) is my favourite. While "Unholy Ghost" and "Cosmic Energy" never really slows down, they never really seem to make speed either. That's intentional, I'm certain, because this German twosome is very consistent. They move at their own pace and they know exactly what that pace should be. No particular cuts stand out here, but the disc is solid all the way through.

My only major critique with this one is that a fair portion of the lyrics sound like they were written by a 12-year-old ("I can feel yr grief – Please don’t be sad – I love you, love you so bad”, “, “My tree is dead – My tree so sad – Too late I cry – Too late my friend died”) while the rest don't make much of an impression. I didn't dislike Touch The Spider but they didn't blow me away either. Still, their CD is enjoyable enough that it'll find its way back into my CD player every now and then.

80/100

Cosmicmasseur.