[6/10] After three full-length albums under the banner of Amateur God (which was essentially a duo alongside vocalist/violinist Helena Gabrijelcic), multi-instrumentalist Blaž Erzetič has decided to branch out on his own with his brand new project El Soter, with Appletree Of Discordthe first offering under his new pseudonym.

Unlike the dark-wave pop sound of his former outfit, Erzetič has dabbled more into the industrial side of things with El Soter, and in all honesty the results leave a lot to be desired.

The “Pre-Initiation” introductory track gets the album off to a promising start with its synthesized woodwinds and recital of Emily Dickinson’s “#739” (spoken by Helen Filipčič). As the initial start of the first proper track on the album, “Initiation” proves to be an even greater hint at things to come with its heavier guitar work and thick sounding keyboards.

Sadly, the promise is never fulfilled. Quite simply, Erzetič simply doesn’t have the vocals to pull off this newfound darker and heavier industrial sound on his own. Despite the odd effect in the chorus, his vocals are more spoken than sung for the most part, and lack any real emotion to mark them out as anything but robotic and mechanical. But aside from the vocals, it’s also the overall song structure that seems to suffer without the aid of a collaborator. Sure, the song has some catchy appeal, but it just doesn’t have enough to make it really rise above the mundane and dreary.

The guitar heavy “The Hail” is a little more energetic and creative, but the cliché “Freak Show” and “Sum” just bring down any hope built up by the former track. Vocalist Metka Rogelja manages to inject a huge amount of life in “Not Coming Back” (which is without any doubt the best track on the album), while the up-tempo “Blaming The Moon,” the instrumental “Girl In Pink, For Example” (the second strongest track on the album) and the interesting “Chaos Based Directions” represent the best of what the remainder of the album has to offer.

There’s no denying that Erzetič is trying something new in order to broaden his sound, but unfortunately he simply hasn’t succeeded in pulling it off convincingly. There’s definitely some interesting ideas contained within Appletree Of Discord, but as a whole, this release sounds a little too lifeless and bland in comparison to what I generally associate with Erzetič’s past accomplishments.

www.myspace.com/elsoter