Music Reviews

Playground

… And the Gods, They Play

DMZ Productions

Strange, eerie metal mixed with haunting gothic overtones. The album is to be studied, rather than simply listened to. It’s intricate and carefully fabricated, and tells some sort of story. Songs are pitted against each other, as the old man in “I Want To Live” says, “I escaped you, I died.” The young man of “Dead Are the Weak” says, “Dead are the weak… “ “I Am God” yells at God, proclaiming “I am merciless/I am God/I am the truth.”

I see a lot of reference towards wizards, inner conflicts, struggles. Songs are given arcane names like “Prelude to Fear” and “Sea of Judgement.” It appears that … And the Gods, They Play is a tale of a man’s journey through life as a werewolf or some supernatural misfit, a toy for the gods to cruelly torment. Musically, I’m torn between describing it as something like Dream Theater of any number of hard, heavy goth bands. DMZ Productions; 407-331-6118


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