Time like Vines

She Said Destroy…strange name for a band. Who said destroy? She did, apparently.

Anyway, besides that, this is the debut album, “Time Like Vines”, from these Norwegians. Usually, debut albums do not sound anything like what the band is intending to do. Fear Factory’s “Soul Of A New Machine” and Meshuggah’s “Contradictions Collapse” are good examples. Having said that, debut albums are not always bad. Like this one.

The album kicks off with “Armageddon, Anyone?”. It starts with some crazy static, then jumps into the song. From the start, the guitars are very distorted and have a black-metallish sound about them. It tends to fit the music, though, as cleaner guitars would’ve damaged the atmosphere it’s portraying. They make the music much darker and hellish.

One aspect of the album that really stands out is the drumming. Fills, fills, and more fills! He rarely sticks to doing the same bar more than twice, and varies almost everything. Have I mentioned the fills yet? One example of his skill comes at the end of the title track, just before the fade out, where he starts his fill off-time, and squeezes in semi-quavers and two triplets (I think). Outstanding.

The vocals are nothing special. Two vocalists…one with throaty growls, the other with higher screams. They give a good contrast and really keep the songs that much more interesting. Their vocals fit the music they’re playing, keeping the dark, doom-like atmosphere.

The songwriting is very good. Most of the songs clock in at 5-6 minutes, which gives the band enough time to fuse all their different metal styles together. One of the best examples is the song “Shapeshifter”. One of the better songs on the album, it incorporates some thrash and death, while ending on a more melodic note. Tracks 4 and 5 merge together very well, making one long song split in two parts. Track 4, “I Sense A Tempest Rising”, also shows off the drummers capabilities, with superb beats and fills.

The strangest track is easily the last one, “Morituri Te Salutant”. A guitar instrumental, lasting just 1:35, which sounds like something from a salsa album. Doesn’t quite fit the mood of the album, which is probably why it is placed last. I usually never listen to it and press stop after track 9.

All in all, this is well produced debut. Not the best of 2006, and certainly not the worst, but I do sense something big will come out from them in the future.

She Said Destroy…doesn’t sound that strange after all.