Allow me to begin with the proclamation that I am not one to tell a band what to write or how to write it.

SIGNALFEIDE is a two-man band, of Norway and the US, who play a dark, twisted amalgamation of a range of styles across Black, Ambient and Doom. The 2014 EP, "Occupation Poetry", treads on the unfortunate line between like and dislike; do I progress? Do I attempt to bother to penetrate the thick walls of ugly production, muddy sound and, at times, messy arrangements?

Interestingly, the album's three 'title tracks' are the far more tolerable pieces; each slightly different, they are composed of sometimes-beautiful, sometimes-jarring, sometimes-evocative arrangements of rather pleasant-sounding clean guitars, and atmospherics that range from the calming, to the ugly and grating; the constant string-grating throughout "Part I" was verging on intolerable. "Part II", for whatever reason for it being over 7 minutes long, although a beautiful piece in its own right, did not seem to keep me at the same level of enthusiasm for more than three minutes. By "Part III", I was noticing improvements in the music's dynamics, with darker, and deeper (literally) undertones.

The two 'metal' tracks on this album are where it falls rather short. "Forces Unleashed" doesn't seem to be unleashing much, with a heavily-distorted, repetitive series of riffs, 'embellished' (is that actually the right word?) with peculiar, melodic effects, any 'vocals' reduced to unintelligible whispers. "Morals Flogged" feels much like the aforementioned, albeit at a faster, more upbeat pace, with slightly different drum and riff patterns.

Unfortunately, I'm finding it hard to find enough good things to say about this album without calling it an incoherent mess; the beautiful, ambient passages barely save it from that.