Dawn of Tears - Descent 3/5
http://www.mediafire.com/?
It’s been a long-standing belief of mine that melodeath is nothing more than a shoddy compilation of the extreme tendencies of the mainstream scene, and the boring bits of the underground. I wish I could say that this album proved that wrong, but it didn’t. I should make myself clear though; fans of melodeath will probably enjoy this. The players know their instruments, and don’t do anything wrong, it’s just that they don’t do anything right in my eyes.
Don’t get me wrong, this is better then the majority of the Gothenburg crap, probably because of the thousand plus mile distance from that overly predictable, cookie-cutter bull. The melodies are driven by neo-classical guitar riffs, in spite of keyboard appearances. The vocalist tries to keep this interesting by varying his growls, but doesn’t succeed in persuading me. He might have been better off trying to use more clean vocals, as it seems they might have fit the concept better. The bass is buried, but he’s just following the guitar, so you won’t be missing much. The drums are quite solid, and they are perhaps the most energizing instrument present. In fact, this might be the first time I’ve considered the drums to be the highlight of a band.
This merely strikes me as the pinnacle of average. I commend the band for avoiding the pitfalls that surround their chosen genre, but I would have enjoyed hearing something that hasn’t been done before by a band like Dark Tranquility. The guitarists can create melodies, but their riffs and solos won’t be creating memories anytime soon. If any of this seems too harsh, take some solace in that it’s written by one who would like nothing better then to throw a little hate toward this genre in general. I want to stress that the music itself isn’t very bad; it strikes me in person as boring.
While doing due research on this, I’ve found that the band encourages you to download the album off their blog for free. That might be the most convincing thing this band has done, and it show the passion they harbor for the business. It also show a great level-headedness, after all, how long will it be before the album is pirated anyway? A free download is a great way to present your debut to a fanbase. However, with all things free, sometimes, you get what you pay for. Personally, three full listens, then I couldn’t wait to be done with this.
By C.J.Ulferts
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