Highest Beauty

Highest Beauty has all the hallmarks of its age...the digital artwork with some tattooed angel that might even look a little cyberpunk/futuristic if you stared at it from a distance, a tight-knit thrashing At the Gates spin on Swedish death metal, and a slightly more modern vibe to its mix and songwriting, which was comparable to groups like Darkane, Soilwork, and Dimension Zero. I remember this sophomore album also seemed to have greater availability in my area of New England, and thus a bit more penetration into the fans of this style; several friends bought the album and asked me about it, and it seemed In Thy Dreams were at last on the radar along with their influences. Ironically, I think the band might have already called it quits before this came out, and thus they wouldn't be progressing any further, but did they at least leave us with their best?

I'm not sure. If you asked me to recommend an interested party any of their material, this could be the clear choice, as I just find that it has the most to offer. But there are some downsides. I don't know that the production is superior to The Gate of Pleasure, in fact it's a little dry and uneven, but the riff patterns here retain a lot of that album's nastiness. Funnily enough, this album feels the most AND least like At the Gates to me, because it's got the vocals and the volleying aggression reminiscent of Slaughter of the Soul, but at the same time they embark on a few riffing patterns which don't sound like they'd ever be written in that camp (but maybe in The Haunted later). When they break their formula, as on the slower piece "Spirits Forge", or the churning thrash moments of "Control", you get the feeling the band should have been expanding its dynamics all along, not that these are remarkable tracks, but they show a range that might have helped the band achieve a bit more notoriety.

There are a few riffs on this one that are among their best, like the opening to "Selfpity Human", one of the better tracks here in general, or the glorious charge of "Lower Regions". Indeed, Highest Beauty seems to save a lot of its bangers for the later moments of the disc, and if you took the last seven songs, stacked a few more good ones on at the end, I'd have a higher opinion of it. But it gets its job done either way, flooding your earspace with snarling, thrashing death metal with an occasional outburst of majestic, melodic emotion in a chorus or breakdown. These are no slouches, but I just don't know that I'm grabbing this one over Rusted Angel, The Chainheart Machine, Natural Born Chaos, Steelbath Suicide, Colony, Clayman or Damage Done. It's B-team, clearly, but the guy on the B-team that cheers boisterously and loudly from the bench, and he's ready to play at a moment's notice. He's got spirit.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

In Thy Dreams band returns with a second album after the decent debut, The Gates of Pleasure. The style takes lots of elements from the At the Gates conception of melodic death metal and right for this reason, the debut sounded too massive in most of the parts. The songwriting was full of brutality but it often lacked in differentiation, giving you the idea of a too monotonous effort. With this new effort we cannot say that the style has changed. Another comparison that immediately came to my mind is Dimension Zero band: the frontal assault is the same one in style. The tempo is always fast with lots of elements from thrash metal too, but just the guitars can give a hint of melody.

The riffs are frantic, fast and in pure tremolo style. The few breaks of the title track are here just to add a hint of darkness but the rest is on speed. The up tempo seems neverending, while the fast bass drums beats are remarkable for nastiness. “Spirit Forge” features a bigger disposition towards melody but nothing too evident. Actually, the slower breaks are the most melodic sections even if the fast riffs are always brutal. “Surrealistic Insanity” and “Hatred” are two short tracks that point on the good mixture of violence with slower parts to let the dark/melodic elements come out. Few growled parts are to appreciate because they are able to change the atmosphere, adding a higher dosage of death metal elements.

The groove introduction to “Control” and the growl vocals are something new for this band and I have to admit that they took my aback. However, the speed restarts are always out-of-the-blue and they change completely the song’s structure. “Selfpity Human” returns to standard melodic death metal even if the lead lines do a good work on the calmer sections. The rest remains on fast paces and the only things that change is the contraposition up tempo snare beats/fast bass drums restarts. “Lower Regions” continues on the same style: fast riffs, up tempo and a hint of melody. Yes, the melodies are quite catchy but they don’t add anything to the genre and the continued hammering doesn’t contribute to the variation and to the originality of this album.

The vocals continue in spitting out all the hatred and sufferance through the shrieky tonality. “Razor-Sharp” equals same style again and this time the melodies are even less recognizable. The few breaks are always full of fast riffs and the last two songs, “Weeping Twilight” and “Upon Your God” have the privilege of adding a bit more of melody. The tempo is less impulsive for the first one but again truly fast for the last. All this force me to sustain the same thoughts and ideas I had for the first album: the music is massive, fast but the songwriting lacks in fantasy. The brutal way of playing of this band literally suffocates the few melodies and the structures tend to be too similar, with few standout moments.