Artist: Sin Story
Label: Self-released
Release: 2009
Duration: 48.00
Rating: 2/5
“Paths of Civilization” is the debut from coastal bores Sin Story, a bunch of guys who’d love to spit fire but only manage to “release” the occasional puff of methane. For pulling off the former, they’re chronically short on character, and, in their own way, on know-how too. Sin Story love to grumble (though who knows what about), love to rant, threaten and love all at once, while also trying to cook up something totally their own, something different. The result of all this is unmistakable. While Sin Story panic and trip over the symptoms of musical infantilism, they ignore the calls of their own musical direction and are already paving their road to ruin on opening night. Good luck, boys!
The problem with “Paths of Civilization” lies in the fact that the guys skipped puberty by force and in rather cheeky fashion, so the signs of acne corrosion on their pale cheeks have stayed buried deep beneath the not exactly ideal production packaging of an unattractive facade of current rock orientation, which is, accordingly, stripped of any credibility. Sin Story struggle with the mood-shifting maneuvering we’ve heard so many times before, which rests entirely on swapping between various rock-related genre shades, most often grunge and alt-rock sensibilities, and not infrequently they glance toward more accessible, pop-rock-leaning tunes. As if the already baroque-sounding performance weren’t enough of a mouthful, the guys also burden themselves with an utterly irritating tangle of musical activity that sprawls uncontrollably out of most of the album’s otherwise fairly pleasant core motifs.
Groping in every direction, with no healthy sense of orientation, as Sin Story keep pushing the buttons of unconventionality in vain, doesn’t impress. Quite the opposite, it comes across as unconvincing and cheap. The common denominator of the album thus lands somewhere in the zone labeled generic. That’s exactly why “Paths of Civilization” mostly sounds like a naive teenage ritual by a foursome who’d like to cram as impressive a display of broad musical influences as possible into the basic structure of every single song. Moments like “Not This Time”, “Once More” or “Deaf Wall” do hint at tangible potential in the Sin Story collective, but alas, they’re too quickly overpowered by stylistic half-bakedness and the chronic lack of musical maturity across the rest of the album. Then there’s the extremely irritating English pronunciation, plus frequent and even less in-tune outbursts from both lead vocalists (the album’s own peculiar “high point” in that regard comes courtesy of the closing, who-asked-for-it acoustic bonus “The Circle). Totally dispensable!
Lineup
Alan Potočnjak: vocals, guitar
Aleksander Družina: vocals, guitar
Marko Loredan: vocals, bass
Davor Klarič: drums
Production
Gabriel Ogrin
Track list
1. Artificial Movements
2. Not This Time
3. Back To My Life
4. Downfall
5. Chances Gone
6. Can I Charge
7. Deaf Fall
8. Is It Just Me
9. World Of Lies
10. Reasons Falling Apart
11. Once More
12. Sadness Will Smile
13. The Circle (bonus)
