Covenant - Ritual Noise

Everything about Covenant is pompous. It's probably always been that way but it really hits a crescendo with this latest release, the teaser Ritual Noise. I say "teaser" rather than single because this disc has little real worth apart from getting us ready for the new album, Skyshaper. As a teaser, however, it does succeed.

Let's get back to my first statement, Covenant's pompousness. Their whole set up is designed for this. This is their gimic and people do indeed love it, so I'm not saying it as an entirely negative thing. People seem to enjoy Eskil's voice as much as he does, so can we really blame him for making it the dominant force behind Covenant? People also seem to love the total cheeze lyrics stretched across their minimal grasp of the English language: pompous near-goth styled poetry, sung with that cold, distant, pompo-tastic feel.

I'm being quite critical, I know. But really, in truth, I'm not saying that I hate it. Yes, I too can deal with small bouts of this. I'm already all eager to hear the whole album, although I'll probably be pretty bored of the track Ritual Noise by the time it's released. The 3 versions of it that appear on this teaser are too similar, with nothing really standing out between them. The two bonus tracks, however, do break up the monotony of hearing "we make ritual noise" over and over and over again. As of March 7th, 2006, this disc will only be for the total completest.

Squid @ Fev. 2006