The Splendour of the Repellent

This is one of the most extreme death metal CDs I have ever heard. The guitar sound is extremely distorted and fuzzy sounding, and the riffs are highly atonal and technical. Though the production makes the riffs sound rather blurry at times, it is clear that they are highly complex and hard to play. However, they are severely lacking in coherence or melody of any kind. Thornesbreed are easily one of the most unmelodic death metal bands I have heard. This makes the CD very hard to get into. Now, I’m not someone who only likes melodeath – I much prefer real death metal – but the complete lack of melody in Thornesbreed’s music does detract from their appeal. Listening to the music, it is apparent that they are very good musicians. Now if they’d only add a little bit of melody to their uber-technical riffs, they would be a great technical death metal band.