Imperfect Breed of Humanity

As I’ve stated many times before in reviews I’ve written; I don’t like melodic death metal. There are one or two exceptions, of course, but to me death metal is a brutal genre and not a melodic one. So when I receive promos of the particular style I have a hard time reviewing it. First off since I don’t listen to it I can hardly ever guess where the hell band’s draw influences from, I can’t compare them to any other acts and it feels like I’m not giving it a fair review in the first place since I just don’t like it. I particularly can’t stand that Gothenburg sound that’s developed, and so when I receive Born of Sin’s debut album and read that they’re from the Gothenburg area I don’t have high hopes to begin with.

Thankfully "Imperfect breed of humanity" isn’t a full-on melodic death metal attack. Sure, the core of it remains so, but they’ve certainly spiced things up. The vocalist Jerker Backelin (I wonder if he’s related to the Backelin guys from Lord Belial, one would guess so) has a certain raspy undertone that I can’t help but to think of Tompa from the At the Gates fame when hearing, but still this is more to the black metal side of screaming. Musically they’ve also incorporated some black metal, which adds a nice touch. At times I could swear I heard some thrash riffing as well, much like the previously mentioned At the Gates. So they certainly aren’t going for that redundant In Flames sound, thankfully.

But still, this just isn’t for me. There’s definitely nothing wrong with the album, but I can’t help but to get bored. The production is good, and the bass is pretty much constantly audible, adding a rumbling that many bands seem to overlook in their sound. There are some catchy riffing that one can easily dig along to, just take the opening to "Like a wave of destruction" as an example. And there’s tons of variety tempo-wise, although most tracks are built upon the same recipe. When the drumming goes fast I guess it still feels like fast mid-tempo, so I would definitely like some blasting to take place, which would add a nice change of pace and much needed brutality. But then again, melodic death metal isn’t meant to sound brutal.

Ahh, fuck it. I know I’m just rambling here; I can’t really be the judge of this. I think Born of Sin are doing their thing quite well, and a fan of the style should really dig it. But to me it lacks variety, no matter the incorporation of both black and thrash metal. You be the judge.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net