UWU SLAUGHTER

With the recent innovations of who can music in this day and age, you can get totally independent artists posting their music on sites like Bandcamp, Newgrounds, YouTube, and many other platforms. Honestly I think this is so cool. It allows people to share their ideas with the world without the need of record labels or companies, and it feels like a good direction music can go in. With that, there are also gonna be artists in the Prog sphere sharing their work as well. One such artist I have found is Czyszy. One such album by him caught my eye, and it was UwU Slaughter. I thought the name was funny because it reminded me of those rather infamous internet memes surrounding emoticons like OwO and UwU. I decided to check it out just too see what it is all about.

For starters, I do enjoy this sort of midi sound the album has going for it. It gives it a whimsical, almost fun like feel through the album. It feels both professional and something you'd find in a indie video game. I also like how this music feels like it'd feel right at home with a good amount of video games. One comes to mind, which is Touhou. I definitely find some commonalities to both Touhou and Czyszy's sound, especially with the midi instruments being used. I also love how it feels like it is from the 70s while sounding like an album you'd hear in the modern day. It's really fun stuff, I bet if this was played by a band, like maybe Yes or ELP, than it'd sound right at home for the 70s style of progressive rock.

However I do have my issues. For one, the vocals. The vocal performance is sort of ear grading a bit. I cannot help but feel the need to skip to a part of the song where there is not any singing present. Furthermore, while I praised the midi instrumentation, combined with the vocals it kinda gets annoying. It nearly gives me a headache. Also, it definitely feels more like a tribute to the 70s than it's own thing. I know I said it'd feel right at home in the 1970s, but that praise has a double side to it, where I can definitely say this feels a bit unoriginal. Obviously not entirely, but it does feel like less of an album you'd hear in the modern Prog scene with bands like The Flower Kings or IQ, which kinda makes it a bit of a downer in my books.

Overall, pretty good album. Not the best but not the worst, the artist definitely has potential, so I hope they get better with time, and maybe explore more genres of Prog like more metal sounds or maybe a bit of jazz like with bands like Caravan or Mahavishnu Orchestra. Just food for thought though.