Windham Hell

What is this that stands before me? Certainly a lofty affair, this 70-minute CD has me pretty puzzled, Windham Hell (huh?), giving us another "spooky intro track," wasting another minute of everyone's lives, then the first song starts and a vague, distant black metal feel approaches and you get ready for the blast beats and all that evil shit, but, nope, not really. WH are more into a kinda thrash/death metal sound, certainly heavy enough, although the drum machine (or, if it's a real drummer, the weird sound on the drums) has to go. But, throwing the metal ball into left field, suddenly someone who is almost as, well, cool as the Great Kat shows up on guitar and starts playing classical riffs at manic speed! Then comes the acoustic passage and the folk part. Sounds interesting and progressive on paper, but listening to this cumbersome effort is enough to obliterate most people I'm sure. The looong songs with too many parts and the vocals, on the rare occasion when there is any, are really quiet non-descript mumbles and death grumbles, making it really oppressive and sleepy, like the soundtrack to a bad dream involving elves and forests and stuff. Loses as many points for being overwhelming as it gains for originality, sort of rendering it useless.