Wisdom & Arrogance

"Wisdom and Arrogance", the second full-length outing from Joyless, would have been a huge surprise for the band's fans who knew of the musicians' background as former members of Forgotten Woods. For one thing, the album has few obvious black metal elements and influences, and presents as a set of distinct songs performed in an eclectic rock-pop style drawing from various genres and time periods, in which depressive black metal is but one inspiration among many equals. The dominant style is best described is misanthropic rock-pop with a hard edge.

The album's general approach is to use the simple pop-song format with a definite verse-chorus narrative and a palette of catchy pop tunes to convey messages based around aspects of modern life, the alienation that often results from day-to-day living and the quest and yearning for closer contact and communication. While this isn't an especially original tactic - countless bands in the past have often used the happy pop-song format to express ideas and messages that subvert and question the format and its assumptions, and in doing so enrich their messages and the format itself - Joyless's use of the format to push their own philosophical barrow, together with a youthful female vocalist as lead singer, is not exactly common. To my knowledge (and I admit I haven't investigated very far myself), only France's short-lived Amesoeurs attempted anything similar. Listeners might wonder why more bands haven't followed in Joyless and Amesoeurs' foot-steps: "Wisdom and Arrogance" benefits from the freshness and originality of such an approach with the majority of songs demonstrating a distinctive identity and brimming with creative ideas. On top of that, Joyless shows it's possible even in this current jaded era of music for pop music to be inventive and original without resorting to tricky studio effects or pre-programmed beats and rhythms that scream urban blues or whatever the happening music fashion is.

While songs are generally quite simple in structure and don't allow for complex musical structures, nevertheless they convey the isolated condition of individuals in contemporary urban society very well in their use of particular music keys, range of guitar tones and the emphasis on lyrics sung in a clear voice over the music. A good example of this is "Stand" which through child-like repetition and a sparse musical delivery drives home the stress modern society places on bland conformity and the band's encouragement to listeners to rebel. Other songs on the album vary in their interest levels: if they start off with distinctive melodies and rhythms, they usually stay good right to the end; if not, then they are generally quite stodgy ("Isn't It Nice?") and no amount of squealing or squawking from the singer can improve them. The singing usually isn't bad though sometimes it seems a bit off-key and the tone can be a bit bland.

The better songs on the album usually play with the pop-song format: these are the aforementioned "Stand"; "The Nails" (completely spoken); the country rock'n'roll track "Transpire" which features multi-tracked vocals; and "Room of Velvet Splendour" which admits some Odinpop black metal fuzz-guitar spice and a lead male vocal into its sound.

The album is quite a good if hit-and-miss experiment in depressive rock-pop but might have benefited more if the band had included more elements from black metal and maybe more also from other genres like Norwegian folk and dark ambient, and if it had considered using combined male and female vocals in a couple of tracks.

There are a lot of bands with an intellectual point to make, and even more bands who pretend to make one. Music underscored by cumbersome concepts make listening hard work, so that the album in question seems weighted down by dense musicianship and heavy rhetoric that go against the listener’s enjoyment and appear disingenuous. The pretenders, on the other hand, insult the listener by putting on a show. They’re masters of artifice and theatrics, and they wear all the right makeup and costumes but lack substance.

Joyless are somehow putting on a show, but there isn’t any pretense to be found on “Wisdom & Arrogance.” They’re comfortable with their silliness and don’t adorn their music with unnecessary frills. The album’s sincere approach portrays life as a sandcastle built closest to the tide or as a name written in sand. The atmosphere is burdened by a sense of transience, but Joyless maintain the nonsensical compulsion to exist in spite of it.

Appropriately, the music progresses childishly—in the positive sense of the word. “Wisdom & Arrogance” is not a metal album. Instead, it takes on a depressive rock style that often harks back to the 1950’s and 60’s. The songs are, in general, simple and catchy, with a verse-chorus structure. They have the feeling of a jam session consisting of close friends, but their structures are still highly calculated, if formulaic.

As a result, the instrumentation follows predictable patterns, but does so with a personality that is not to be found on any other release. The clean guitar tone gives the music a sort of “jangly” sound, while the bass rises to prominence and does its own work, such as in “Divine.” Fitting with the simplistic rock style, the drums are not noteworthy and, in “Transpire” and “Stand,” are entirely replaced by tambourines, chimes, and claps.

In fact, much of “Wisdom & Arrogance” could be described as “retro.” Stand” sounds like a slow, melancholy surf rock song, if surf rockers had been depressed nine-year-olds who couldn’t speak English. “Transpire” is the album’s charismatic childishness at its peak. The guitars proceed at a carefree, head-bobbing rhythm akin to older rock, while the vocalist (two of her, actually) cathartically spouts her angst—without intelligence and without pretense (that is, you’ll hear the f-word quite a few times).

The vocals precisely characterize the childishness of the album. Helleboe sounds like a little girl who can’t speak English, as the vocals even come out with a laughably silly accent. Outside this context, she’d be a terrible singer, but within it, she is perfect. Helleboe has a voice that sounds not only innocent in “Divine,” “Stand,” and “Isn’t It Nice,” but also depressive and world-weary. Her vocals rise to the level of what one might call “beautiful,” while still being rooted in ugliness.

The album is not trying to be perfect, and it shows, however negatively. “The Nails” is a spoken-word piece and, though Helleboe’s accent-laden English is entertaining, this song is hard to sit through. It marks an uncomfortable break in the album and splits the release unnecessarily in two halves. There is nothing thematically different between the first four songs and the last four, and so “The Nails” is really nothing but filler, uncomfortable filler at that. “Why Should I Cry?” is weak and forgettable in comparison to the song it follows, “Transpire.” Perhaps it’s too long, or the chorus is weak. In any case, it’s at this point that the album starts to drag. “Trust Endorse” doesn’t help at all, as it’s only an instrumental version of “Stand,” but at least it lends cohesion to the release as a whole. “Room of Velvet Splendour” juts out at the end at nearly nine minutes in length. It’s a good song that showcases the retro-rock style, but its male-driven vocals and length go against what was established previously.

In truth, the band's discography as a whole seems to have a problem with filler. Their releases sometimes amount to leftover material from Forgotten Woods or are stuffed with re-released tracks. Taking “Wisdom & Arrogance” track-by-track shows that Joyless were not thinking on a super-conceptual level when they composed the album. If one systematically approaches something that was not conceived systematically, he is bound to find incoherence. In a way, the incoherence makes the album more human.

Nevertheless, “Wisdom & Arrogance” is one of those albums that you like in spite of—or maybe even because of—its flaws. Its edgy presentation gives it personality. With this release, Joyless have set innocence and charm to song. As a whole, the album is easy to digest but manages to entertain meaningful questions and give the listener an outlet for his depression and angst, without going overboard. With songs like “Transpire” or “Stand,” at first you’ll raise an eyebrow, and then you’ll crack a smile. “Wisdom & Arrogance” is Joyless in the truest sense of the word, but it’s an album that inspires cynical laughter, not gratuitous weeping.

'Wisdom & Arrogance' is the second full-length album from Joyless, a complete mind-fuck of a band. Joyless are an oxymoron to me. Playing a music which is meant to depict depression and inner struggles with yourself and yet seemingly contradicting that entirely by introducing the audience to a seemingly happy depiction of mental suffrage. From what one can tell, lyrically the band are true to the notion that Joyless are about conveying their individual views of depression and its the one time I can truly see that.

Musically, Joyless are quite catchy. To me, this full-length release is a tale of two halves. During the first half we have an unusual array of female vocals which are genuinely quite soothing. Ida has a good voice. She's able to sing in able and willing to sing in different pitches and use different tones of voice to put Joyless' messages across. Her voice is relaxing and aforementioned, quite unusual. That isn't to say that's a bad thing, its just different. Which perhaps in turn adds a new feel to Joyless. Many bands tend to use female vocals to gain attention and furthermore allow her vocals to do the work in terms of drawing support. Joyless use good songwriting and competent musicianship to portray their individual abilities. You could say they allow the music to do the talking, as opposed to sticking an attractive woman in front of the microphone to appeal to the younger generation.

Ida's voice is similar to that of your typical gothic vocalists. This does not detract from the music, in actual fact it suits this new genre of depressive rock. As quick as this genre has come to my attention, Joyless are quicker in pushing the boundaries of that genre and shaping it into their own style. Joyless take this ability and use it on the audience. Being able to grab the audiences attention by appealing to them with catchy riffs and soft drums which act to enhance the relaxing feel of the music. Subtlety is probably what Joyless were aiming for. If so, they hit the nail on the head. The generally soft pitches and precise leads act to improve the soft atmospheric nature and swallow the listeners emotions with it. Some of the songs remind me of a folk/country inspired music. Strange yet quite pleasing.

After the brief intermission of the spoken 'The Nails' we're introduced to the second half of the album. This idea of a more folk inspired variation of music is seemingly explored more on 'Transpire'. However, its not very appealing. Ida's vocals shift from a clean and soft method to a more throaty screams variation. From what one can tell, the lyrics are quite poor as well. They're too teenage angst for my liking. From there onwards the album shifts time and time again until the end. From one emotion to another and its not to great affect. From anger to sorrow. The album is highly emotive, but Joyless fail to arrange those emotions correctly. its hard to grasp the general feel of the emotions behind the music when they shift continuously from one set of feelings to another. Although confusing, it isn't too off putting and for the first time a very quiet use of male vocals is used. Which just adds to the general confusion. However, they do sing well together, but it just makes no sense to start using male vocals half way through an album when you've become accustomed to female vocals, which I'm certainly not used to anyway. They serve no real purpose.

Again, this album is a tale of two halves. Its for anyone who likes their music creative and far different to what they'd normally expect of the respective genres Joyless apparently cover with their blend of music. Highlights include; Close To God and Stand.