Twilight Fauna - The Grotesque Travesty of Creation

Wow. I have never hated to give a band a mixed review as much as this. Twilight Fauna play what they dub as Appalachian Atmospheric metal, very much in a similar vein as Panopticon. The majority of the music is clean picked and strummed, evoking the sound of the southern Appalachians run through an Agallochian filter. If TF had created a record of just that, this would be a hugely positive, albeit out of place, review. Where our issue comes into play is the parts of the songs, or the songs that are wholly black metal. Whereas the previously mentioned Panopticon and Agalloch inject the same level of devotion and talent into their metal sections, Twilight Fauna falls way short. Poorly programmed drums sit so far back in the mix, serving no rythmic or dynamic function, just existing as an annoyance. His vocals sound like a coke-addled muppet with laryngitis. To top it off, those sections just seem like they were thrown together to say that they play metal too, with no sense of cohesion or reason. Twilight Fauna has given us two records: a very good atmospheric interpretation of appalachia, and a really bad black metal record. Either practice your ass off, learn your programming/get a real drummer, and work on making your songwriting more cohesive, or just drop the black metal. That seems like the riskier path, but I could see the rewards being worth that risk.