Review / 200 Words Or Less
This Door to Remain Closed During Work Hours
Achieve Albeit an Absence

Independent (2006) Tohm

This Door to Remain Closed During Work Hours – Achieve Albeit an Absence cover artwork
This Door to Remain Closed During Work Hours – Achieve Albeit an Absence — Independent, 2006

This Door to Remain Closed During Work Hours sounds like a jam band who shows their metal influences every once in a while. The repetition of a jam band is there, but there's no soloing. In that case, I'll just call it boring music. Achieve Albeit an Absence could also be an attempt at post-rock; it turned out too mellow and too slow. There are pretty melodic parts, I'll give them that, but the music rarely changes during a song. All but one of the six songs is over ten minutes. I expected epic tracks when I saw the song lengths but I was let down instead. This Door To Remain Closed During Work Hours reminds me of a local band from Anywhere, USA that never quite makes it out of local venues and never quite exceeds a fan base of close friends. It sounds like they recorded Achieve Albeit an Absence in one take and didn't care about its sloppiness.

3.5 / 10Tohm • December 31, 2007

This Door to Remain Closed During Work Hours – Achieve Albeit an Absence cover artwork
This Door to Remain Closed During Work Hours – Achieve Albeit an Absence — Independent, 2006

Recently-posted album reviews

Witness Chamber

Bronze Gates
Brain Floss (2025)

Straight out of Boise’s unforgiving hardcore pipeline, the band Witness Chamber returns with Bronze Gates, their most suffocating and sharpened release yet. Seven tracks with zero breathing room. If you’ve followed the band since 2021’s Paradise Awaits EP or the 2023’s True Delusion, you already know they’ve never been subtle. However, this time the punishment feels sacramental. It’s straight edge … Read more

Home Front

Watch It Die
La Vida Es Un Mus Discos Punk (2025)

There's a song on Watch It Die called "Dancing With Anxiety," a title that wraps up Home Front's style quite well. Because I like to beat metaphors to a pulp, maybe also consider "Between The Waves" as another title that captures how they straddle the punk and new wave worlds. Home Front plays street punk with a lot of synth … Read more

PitchBlack

Walking on Burning Ground
Producciones Paganas (2025)

Formed in the mid-2000s, PitchBlack have always been one of Danish metal’s most overlooked heavy hitters. A band is sitting between old-school melodeath grit and European thrash aggression, building a reputation on intensity instead of trends. They debuted with Designed to Dislike in 2007, followed it with The Devilty in 2011 (which landed them spots at Copenhell and Download UK), … Read more