OneMetal.com REVIEW:
Saints Of Eden – Forbidden Pleasure

Forbidden Pleasure is the fourth full-length album by Bedford-based gothic-tinged industrial metal act Saints Of Eden, the band formed by former Nefilim bassist Cian Houchin after his departure from that band. Now, I have to admit right up front – I’m not the most knowledgable guy in the world when it comes to the industrial end of the metal spectrum. Sure, I’m familiar with Rammstein, and I’m a massive Nine Inch Nails fan – but other than that, I’m fairly in the dark about the genre. I think what has always put me off is that I’ve generally found the riffage in most industrial metal to be quite simplistic and unengaging, and the pacing of the more gothic end of the industrial/darkwave spectrum to be quite plodding and unexciting.

Well, I’m pleased to report that Forbidden Pleasure falls into neither one of these traps – in fact, the album is a collection of pretty diverse tracks, showing the band hitting a number of different stylistic targets from song to song. It’s not completely unique – the blend of metallic riffage, industrial soundscapes, swelling synths, and a mix of growled and clean-sung vocals through the songs brings to mind former Circle Of Dust frontman Klayton’s current solo project Celldweller, while individual songs betray disparate influences. The introduction to ‘I’m Outside’ brings to mind Nine Inch Nail’s ‘March Of The Pigs’, while sixth track ‘One’, with its dancefloor-ready tempo, singalong chorus (complete with Euro-dance synths) and goth-friendly lyrics brings to mind offerings by Sisters Of Mercy.

While the diversity from track to track definitely helped to retain my interest, I wonder if it might not be off-putting to listeners expecting more of one side of the band than the other. For instance, the opening track ‘Timesphere’ is a pretty aggressive beast of a track, with strident riffage punctuated by dissonant chord-squeaks and lock-step drumming. The electronic/industrial elements are largely absent. ‘Scapegoat’ too, trades in double-kick drumming in syncopation with aggressive palm-muted riffage, topped by growled vocals and screeching pinch harmonics. Then you have tracks like the aforementioned ‘One’ and ‘Lost So Incompletely’ – the latter a particularly laid-back affair opening to washes of synthes and melodic, tentative delayed guitar playing before developing into a lighters-in-the-air, sway-from-side-to-side melancholic anthem.

Every track is a well-written, entertaining one in its own right, but from time to time it becomes hard to reconcile the hard and heavy, Ministry-esque tracks with the more darkwave-like, goth club dancefloor fillers – in fact, just before I received this CD, I checked out Saints Of Eden on MySpace to get a taste of what I was in for, and the first track I heard was ‘One’. When I got the disc and spun it for the first time and heard ‘Timespheres’, I had to check that I’d listened to the right band initially. It seems that Saints Of Eden can turn their hands competently to a variety of styles, but have yet to marshall that ability into writing a completly cohesive body of work. Of course, it could just be that their diversity is their particular strength – I just wonder whether certain people will skip the slower, more moody tracks in favour of the heavier numbers, and vice versa.

Saints Of Eden’s MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/saintsofeden
Metech Recordings’ Website: http://www.metech-recordings.com/

Bottom Line

A diverse collection of well-written, well-performed songs that, while entertaining, may be too eclectic in tone to work as a coherent album.