Last Minute To Jaffna – Volume III (Album Review)
The beauty of music is that there really is no “good or bad” music. It all depends on who is listening to it.
You might love something by an artist and the person next you may hate every note. That said, Last Minute to Jaffna’s “Volume III” is going to strike each person differently. The four-piece from Torino, Italy has a dark and moody sound, that makes me think Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Nine Inch Nails flew to Italy and all donated genetic material to create an offspring that became this band. I mean that as a compliment. Its dark, it’s moody and suppressed. Even “subdued” may be a good word for it.
Valerio Damiano’s soothing baritone voice floats over soft, and somewhat repetitive riffs, which at times, almost takes on a Italian folk or flamenco style guitar strumming, set to a deep bass. It pools together to give off a rather haunting sound. Honestly, I kept thinking about all the soundtracks to various movies of the horrors of heroin use. While listening to these songs, I was picturing Jared Leto or a Wayans brother or Ewan McGregor lying on the floor with a knotted rubber tube and a needle hanging out of their arm. Like I said, haunting and foreboding.
The trouble, (for me, anyway) is that these songs are a little TOO sedated. A touch too melancholy and at times, (forgive me) a touch on the boring side. Sometimes the song will climb to a near-crescendo like on “Chapter VI”, but not quite get there. However, just as soon as that happens, that dark and moody vibe comes back and is complimented with a vocal harmony that when blended with the rest of what you hear, absolutely works.
This is not headbanging metal. This is not stoner or doom metal. This is something rather different, although with enough familiarity to attract most fans of dark and “heavy” music. Should you check out Last Minute to Jaffna? Yes, by all means. Will all of you like it? Certainly not, however, if you want to expand your horizons and hear something dark, moody and different, with a touch of Old World, then this is for you.
Mike Borsum
http://thesludgelord.blogspot.com/2014/10/last-minute-to-jaffna-volume-iii-album.html
