User Ne
TARANTOS

June 2003
Released: 2003, Xtreem Music
Rating: 2.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

First off, I respect any band that tries to find its own way to sound unique and original... to a certain point. I even can accept some ´avantgardism´ thrown into music with a harmonious measure, but on the hand, I also happen to know when too much is simply too much. With Spanish ´avantgardish whatever -metallers´ each song seems to be, quite honestly, ´just a little bit´ too much for my picky tastes, unfortunately. A line between an acceptable amount of uniqueness and originality has been crossed beyond the recommended maximum times in User Ne´s case despite the 3rd or 4th prohibition given to them for meandering around the world of music just too much. And too damn often, for that matter. Their ´music´ could be described as a chaotic mishmash of extreme sides of metal merged into some Hispanic Folk –elements and all wrapped up with some occasional opera signing by a female soprano named Annah.



While I was listening to the album, I honestly felt myself quite disturbed due to too much variation and avantgardism for just one album. I even tried to provide some status to this very album as a ´background music´ only when focusing on something else than listening to TARANTOS, but it didn´t work out for me. Actually I lost my whole concentration while trying to focus on other things instead of analyzing User Ne´s ambitious attempt to sound “different.” Different they truly are, but not any that positive sense of the word, I´m afraid...



Shit... this is just way too disturbing and wacko stuff for my taste, I don´t hesitate to admit it. At best they managed to sound a little bit like Septic Flesh and Bal-Sagoth (check out such attempts as “Viola Dobozy”, “Tras el IV Caos” and “...And Ape Ar”), but unfortunately those short moments won´t save this album from sinking into the Pit of Totally Forgotten Releases. Anyone with a bit more of an open mind might find something worth checking out on TARANTOS, so maybe you could well try this out for, let´s just say, “experiment´s sake”. Whatever you think may work best for you...