DESIRE FOR AGONY

Zeni Geva is an experimental band from one of the most quirky and experimental places in the world; Japan. First being introduced to the metal of this country through the avant-styles of Sigh, I had an idea of the distinctive sound that had emerged from the island nation. Zeni Geva are most certainly an extreme metal band, but as far as their fifth album 'Desire For Agony' goes, it may be a little difficult to throw them into any one subgenre. There are aspects of death metal, thrash, sludge, and doom here, and they are all fused together into an album that is enjoyable and fun enough to listen to, although the album has not been anything impressive.

Zeni Geva do have an interesting sound to them, and I found myself wondering while listening to 'Desire For Agony' what style of metal this could fall into. This is not a band who takes a bunch of styles and than lines them up, diving into each in sequential order. Zeni Geva fuses them together into one relatively original sound that holds fairly steady for the entire album. The music here rarely has much melody to it, instead depending on the strangeness and textures of the sounds to make the music enjoyable. Although 'Desire For Agony' is a worthy listen though, there is not much here for a listener to cling onto, even after several listens. While the style here is promising, the songwriting is not particularly great, and with the notable exception of the vocalist (whose very Japanese style of 'extreme' vocals), the musicianship is not anything really impressive.

I would love to hear more of this band, but 'Desire For Agony' has me thinking that while Zeni Geva has a wonderful foundation set in place, the execution may need to be worked on, in order for the excellence to emerge from their work. Keep in mind that this is my first experience with the band, so it will only be a matter of time before I seek out the rest of what this Japanese act has to offer.