The concept of musical experimentation has always flourished in the garden of metal due to its odd appearance and wonderful aftermath, yet some flowers turn out to be so disgusting that one would likely snarl at its sight. Metaphors aside, the avant-garde scene can go from deeply enjoyable to horribly bad with just the right amount of ideas; such groups live on both sides of the fence, but I wasn't second-guessing where Zweizz resigned when I heard The Yawn of a New Age. Formed as an experimental side-project by Svein Egil Hatlevik, Zweizz gained a boatload of attention because of this CD in the experimental world, and I really can't figure out why so many folks find this guy to be a genius. I was expecting a pleasant breeze of strange musical arrangements, but I instead was tricked into an awful hurricane of confusing sound that omits no musical enjoyment at all.Now let me say I'm actually a huge fan of weird/experimental stuff, but this goes beyond the idea of what should be done, and what can be done. The prime musical structure is based around electronica with a forced load of other stupid samples for almost fifty minutes. And as you could guess, Hatlevik's only role is just sliding these odd noises together to make what he thinks is acceptable, but it actually appears confusing and very annoying. There are no riffs, bass lines, drums, or even vocals; it's just spastic ejaculations of stupid beeps, weightless rings, and forgettable noise. It's almost like Hatlevik is trying to redefine the experiment genre by stripping all musical qualities aside and focusing solely on diversity, but here's the kicker: it sounds like a canine's bowel movement.
So is this CD just a collection of horrid sounds with no substance or quality whatsoever? As much as I hate to say it, yes, but one must understand Zweizz is swimming in shark-infested waters with such a release. Experimental music was created to show the world a new side of instrumental fusion, and it only can go so far until the subject overdoses on the experimental ideas and collapses; this is Zweizz's nail in the coffin. I personally love strange music, but this just goes way beyond what the avant-garde genre was supposed to be, and I cannot listen to such a release without judging the validity of something that gathers so much attention.
It's quite clear that Zweizz takes experimental music to a new level in which no backbone or intelligence is displayed. I keep hearing about Zweizz's new breed of avant-garde, but let's get real: a bored teenager could poop out something like this in a few hours. I once breezed past a chattering man, and what he said to his friend sums up this record punctually: "This s*** is whack, yo!" Couldn't have said it better myself.