Bereavement

This is an inoffensive little bit of melodic death metal; generally very similar to Dark Tranquillity but with more of an American melodeath spin to it, like you would generally hear in later years combined with metalcore. A light dusting of keyboards and slightly higher than average vocals draw comparisons to black metal, but there's really nothing black about this: this is pure melodeath that wouldn't make an At The Gates fan bat an eye. It's not particularly special, but it's competent, catchy, and most importantly, short.

This has all the typical tropes of the genre: high, growly vocals, melodic riffs full of harmonizing leads, light keyboard backing at pivotal moments, and fairly conventional, fill-laden drumming, all through a screen of fairly clear and representative production. There's nothing remarkable about this music; it might occasionally be a bit more aggressive than most melodeath, like a bit over halfway through 'Anagoge', where there's a fairly menacing tremolo riff, but otherwise this is directly out of the Gothenburg camp. The fact that this is under sixteen minutes in length goes a long way to making this more tolerable than it otherwise would be; a full album of this would likely be too much, but an EP's worth is a nice little palette cleanser between more 'serious' works.

So if you like melodeath and manage to track this down, go for it; it's nothing special but it's competent and enjoyable for what it is. There's absolutely nothing offensive about this and it's probably cheap wherever you find it, so this is essentially a win all around despite its adherence to convention. Worth a look.

Most of the time when I hear about this band (which is rarely, because they suck) I often hear people babbling on about how the bassist is in Nunslaughter. Wow, the bassist is in Nunslaughter, now this band doesn't such anymore (just kidding, they still suck). I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with Nunslaughter, but I do however; have a problem with this ridiculously premature Cannibal Corpse sundae with Dark Tranquillity sprinkled on top.

Taking that last sentance (combining Dark Tranquillity and Cannibal Corpse), you would think this band would be extremely interesting. In fact, you would be wrong. This band is not even remotely interesting. Let me tell you why...

Things repeat over and over and over again. At the beginning of each song, a riff is played. I have no problems with these riffs (which actually sound good at the beginning) until they are played and repeated several tens of times after and foremost across the lengths of five to six and a half fucking minutes. Never in my life have I been so bored from listening to a death metal band to scared to become a black metal band. If this band is going to sound good, they are going to need to evolve their riffs into a more progressive type, and pick one god damn style. This reminds me of post-deathcore bands like The Black Dahlia Murder who can't make up their minds about what kind of vocals should be portrayed. That's just me though, if you like vocal styles being switched around a lot, then this album is for you. (Haha, just kidding. This band would still suck).

I picked up this album because of the cover, which shows some naked people wrapped entirely in barbed wire trying to eat barbed wire from a demonic lord-like creature. I thought, "Hey, this looks like some pretty brutal death metal. I'll check it out!" I turned out to be wrong. Never judge an album or book by its cover, because it could suck. In this case, From The Depths sucked, extremely.

An excellent pre-release from a band not afraid to innovate in a very tired genre, this album features solid semi-technical death metal (a la Anasarca) with a heavy use of well-executed keyboards playing acutal melodies instead of chords. The general feel of the album is a modern death metal update of Iron Maiden with piano, if that makes any sense at all. Vocals and drumming and overall song construction are fine, but not overly impressive or creative.

Thier full-length is just as good if not better than this release.