The Sound Of Animals Fighting – Lover, The Lord Has Left Us

Last year, everyone was up in hands proclaiming that The Tiger And The Duke was the most innovative album released in years, and that that the anonymous super group that is The Sound Of Animals Fighting will be the band to beat in years to come. I only heard one or two tracks from that album and wasn’t impressed, nevertheless, with all the hype I was still intrigued and I swore to give the next album by the band a fair chance. So here I am, a year later with Lover, The Lord Has Left Us… in my hands; and not only did I give it one chance, but I listened to it two times the whole way through plus some songs here and there. And throughout it all, all I can think of is “My god, this is shit.”

The band, which is still anonymous, was recently revealed to feature members of RX Bandits, Finch and Circa Survive – but on this album, they have three new members and only four remaining ones. While I can’t be sure who the other members are, we can be sure the returning members are Matthew Embree, Rich Balling, Ryan Baker with vocals by the one and only Anthony Green. For those of you who read the site know I have a great distaste for all of Green’s work. I hated his vocals on Saosin and Circa Survive; I’ve always said he has good pitch and performance, but the vocals just annoy me as they are engraved into my skull. Lover, The Lord Has Left Us… is no different. Green is back with his ultra high pitch voice that fails to excite any emotion other than annoyance. In fact, my favorite songs tend to be the ones without vocals or with different vocals – like the semi-traditional Indian song Prayers On Fire or The Heretic (where The Wolf sings instead).

Sadly, it’s not only Green’s vocals which irritate me on this album either. When everything comes together, I can not fathom the reason why the super group of a side project is so popular. Sure, they recorded it in an interesting fashion, but it makes it so that none of it flows. Instead, the improvisation of songs built from the drums up just sounds choppy and uncoordinated. They have random sound effects and filters straight from the odd radio distortion of the Intro which leads into the eerie, creepy acapella Un’Aria. And even though songs like Stockhausen, es ist Ihr Gehirn, das ich suche start off good, they soon ruin it by adding weird effects and painful vocals. Just one listen to The Skullflower has you wondering not only what language they are chanting, but what they were thinking too.

Basically, I have no idea how The Sound Of Animals Fighting did so well with The Tiger And The Duke if it sounded anything like the follow up, because as it is, Lover, The Lord Has Left Us just plain sucks.