My review of Beyond The Epilogue and Water On Mercury’s EP, Flooded, have something in common; that is that both Beyond The Epilogue and Water On Mercury are one man bands. Water On Mercury however, is purely instrumental and the hard work of a man by the name Tim Gavin. Water Of Mercury takes influence from the bands such as Meshuggah, Uneven Structure, and Scale The Summit.
Instrumental bands are a bit of a touchy genre for me. I said in my Beyond The Epilogue review that one man bands bring to mind the bedroom Djent artists, of which some gold can be found but you’re sure to find some really unoriginal stuff. Instrumental music has the ability to get repetitive and often times can be a show of “look at these awesome guitar solos I wrote.” While Water On Mercury definitely has it’s repetitive moments, there is a lot of great work and potential to be found here and the focus on overall songwriting is pretty nice.
There’s a large focus on atmosphere on Flooded, which is brought in my both dissonant guitars and spacey-feeling keyboards, of which can be found on almost every track and without a doubt do a whole lot for the album’s flow and overall tone. The first track ends with this recording of a voice that is repeated saying, “I hope that you think things are gonna be alright from here on out”, which are the only “˜vocals’ per se on the album and, considering the placing of said vocals, I personally felt that it was as though Tim is asking us if we liked the first track and is hoping we think the rest of the album will be good from here on out. And if that indeed was his intention, major props to Tim.
Rather than throw atmosphere and an endless amount of solo’s at you, Tim lets his riffing take the forefront on the album. A great example, and my personal favorite track on the album lies in “Osmium”, the last original track on the album which features a heavy driving riff that gets varied a bit but stays relatively the same all throughout the track and succeeds in making you feel the need to bang your head. The tone of the guitar and the overall nature of the track reminds me a tad of Meshuggah, only this track definitely gets a bit more melodic than Meshuggah does. The track also ends with this really nice dark yet hopeful synth orchestra, that would be fitting for a “hero must rise from the ashes” type movie trailer.
While riffing may be the focus of the album, there is a really cool solo in the middle of the third track “Refocusing”, which changes things up just a little bit.
I can’t say a whole lot for the drums, they really are solely meant to be a backbone for the album here and don’t do anything particularly amazing throughout, save for the very opening of the album and a handful of other small sections. But after that I really lose interest in them, so there is definitely room for improvement in that aspect.
Similar things might be said about the bass guitar on this album. It’s definitely audible, which is nice, but it doesn’t do anything that is wholly noteworthy; but much like the drums it certainly helps drive the album and does a good job as a supporting instrument, which is fine in my book considering that the guitars are the forefront of this album.
Overall Flooded is a solid EP, with great production throughout. It’s not the best album you’ll ever hear in your life, but Tim unquestionably has skills on his instruments and I’m excited to see what he’ll do next with Water On Mercury.
Water On Mercury - Flooded,
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alex I'm a Film student with a passion for Metal. I enjoy most every form of metal, and I love finding new artists. I'm always open to new music!
