Sown - Downside
Self Records

file under nu metal

Evil Dr. Smith: It’s like they haven’t noticed. Or they might act like they’re noses bleed. Or they just don’t care what people say and do just what they like. Therefore we may welcome another addition to the countless Italian nu metal bands that play it like we are still living in the commercial heydays of Korn, Deftones, Mudvayne and Coal Chamber. Wakey, wakey, it’s 2006 now! Don’t they know by now that this style is already pretty old? Yeah, even this genre, which is so much hated by old school metalheads, has a history and evolution for more than ten years now. New metal isn’t new anymore.

All this stubbornness to play like it’s still 1995, somehow I happen to like that self-willed attitude. Especially because most metal kids today like to play metalcore, emo, screamo, mathcore and variations on NWOAHM/Gothenburg-style. Sown does a little step backwards, back into the very end of the previous millennium. Of course there are so many other bands that play in this style today, but there’s hardly a band that plays with an innovative or convincing attitude. Sown isn’t innovative, but it sure is convincing. Their lack of innovation cost them some serious points, but their impressive and aggressive sound bring them more points of appreciation than for instance the last three albums by Korn. The band spits pure fire and the breaks, riffs and grooves are like inflammable poison. Still, they don’t forget to incorporate some melodic elements like Disturbed, some tribal percussion a la Soulfly and even a slight modern, bombastic hysterical touch like Lamb Of God (‘Seven’) in their songs, so the listener doesn’t need to have the feeling he’s listening to the same song ten times.

Halfway through the album you get the idea that the band ran out of creative ideas (‘Overrule’ and the extremely Korn-ish ‘Hoggish’ sound too easy, with ideas that do not stick at all), but the end of the album is just as strong as the beginning. After the demonic ‘My Time’ we get an atmospheric ballad ‘Suicide Note Part 1’, which is a tribute to Dimebag. That was a subconscious, but definitely omnipresent influence I forgot to acknowledge, but it emphasises the fact that Sown is drowned in the nineties, influentially speaking. They don’t give a fuck what the trend wants them to play and just do what they like to play. They don’t only like to play it, they are actually able to play it as well… pretty good.

Evil Dr. Smith diagnoses: 73/100 (details)

http://www.sowntv.com