Determination

The marriage of melodeath and modern metalcore has been something of an ongoing affair, going back perhaps more than a decade. In fact, when looking at the melodic contour of the latter style, one could almost surmise that the likes of Trivium and As I Lay Dying were born out of the American discovery of the Gothenburg scene, and the predecessor of Shadows Fall does tend to lend further credence to the point. As such, it’s very easy to hear echoes of late 90s In Flames in a lot of these bands, and by the time God Forbid got around to releasing their sophomore effort “Determination”, this sound was beginning to find itself mingling with the progressive groove/thrash of Nevermore.

While this style of music is known for its attempts at complexity and depth, there is a latent sense of amateurism that tends to prevail over whatever chops each individual brings to the whole. When looking at otherwise decent ventures into mid-tempo heaviness like “Broken Promise” and “Go Your Own Way”, there are a handful of ideas that just don’t quite go too well together, as if they are trying too hard and overplaying their hand. These songs tend to do their best when they pick up to a faster thrash feel because the drums ease off the fills for a decent amount of time and give the riff work the necessary space to develop and grab the listener. Indeed, the general problem with most of these songs, barring “God’s Last Gift” which actually sees the band reverting back to their somewhat sappier metalcore sound, is the same problem of overindulgent drumming and vocal work that plagued early Mastodon.

When combining all of the disjointed parts of this semi-progressive approach to modern metal with a vocal display that borders on grating at times, it’s difficult to get too excited about the technical abilities of the band. Byron Davis just has an utterly flat sounding shout on this album that, even by the standards set forth by the hack vocalist of As I Lay Dying, comes off as oafish and one-dimensional. The best song to be found on this album, “Determination Pt. 2”, is such primarily because it features the least amount of vocal work of anything on the album. Granted, it also gives the band a chance to mix in a multifaceted approach to semi-balladry including a nice little acoustic intro, but the chief draw of this song is that it just barely misses being an instrumental.

There are probably a good number of metalcore junkies out there who could probably use this as an outlet for their bottled up rage that is less dangerous than taking it out on their significant other while sporting a faded white sleeveless shirt, but this just doesn’t really do much for me. I can give this thing points insofar as it has a good bit more going on than the average Killswitch Engage album, but the level of separation between this album and one of theirs’ isn’t that large. From what I understand this band continued to get better as they moved further away from their metalcore roots towards a more modern thrash style, which can be heard to an extent on here, but is largely overshadowed by the overly active drums and overbearing shouts.

God Forbid, in areas other than the northeast/new england area, is relativly unknown. They are possibly the angriest and most unique band that fuses metalcore and death metal without sounding horrible like the throng of metalcore bands out there. Alot of metalcore bands just scream into a microphone and sound angry. The vocals styles on this band, on all their works up to this album, is more than a metalcore scream vocal, their vocals bring them above all the band metalcore bands. Its not just the vocals that contribute to the anger and uniqueness of this band, but the guitars as well. With these two elements this band and more specifically this album manage to create a different and enjoyable fusion of metalcore and death metal that has a lasting apeal.

To start off with what makes this album so noticably angry and unique is the vocal style of Byron Davis. This band is equal parts metalcore and equal parts death metal. Metalcore vocals tend to just be angry screams which get annoying after awhile and have little to no lasting appeal. Mr. Davis here uses the anger and intensity of metalcore vocals and combines them with the quality and coherance of death metal vocals. One way Mr. Davis makes his mark on this album is with his passion for what he writes. He has the ability to transfor his written lyrics into pure musical vocal passion, intensity, energy, and anger. He feels deeply for what he writes...and it clearly shows on this album. The Coherance of his vocals make these songs more than just metalcore, but a unique and origonal fusion of the genres metalcore and death metal.

Before I mentioned this was the angriest band around, and thats true. Typically the vocals of this style band determine how angry it sounds, well on this album its not just the vocals, but the guitars as well. What helps the intensity and anger of this album is the bursting guitar riffs. Metalcore bands fill their records with short bursts of heavy guitars, making them entertaining for a bit, but then just annoying and noise. The lead guitar on many songs, but not throughout the songs, has short heavy bursts with a secondary guitar playing some rythym between the busts. The rythym of this album along with the short heavy bursting guitars make this album so much more than metalcore, but retains metalcores few good aspects. To top off the guitar work their are some amazing solos.

Rythym has a huge part in this album as their are two distinct sounds. The main sound of this album is the type I desribed before. The angry intense vocals with the bursting guitars accompanied with rythym( Broken promise is a good example of this type of music). Well for the second sound this album has, which start to occur more frequently after track 6, has a huge focus on rythym and melodic death metal. The songs become more melodic for the latter half of the album. While elements found in the first half of the album are present, the album takes on a more melodic and rythmic feel to it. This is where the album makes its farthest stride away from metalcore and more into melodic death metal. Tracks like Determination Part 1, Determination Part 2, and Dead Words on Deaf Ears are examples of when the band abondons most of its metalcore undertones and plays melodic death metal.

This album hosts the fusion of two genres, taking the best aspects of the two genres and combining them to make a unique experiance. It has the anger and intesnity of metalcore, the rawness of it, as well as the technical quality of death metal. Technical riffs at times, short bursting guitars at times that use another guitars rythym to make the riffs and guitar work have more content. The coherance of Death Metal vocals with the intensity and eregy of metalcore vocals. God Forbid On Determination has perfected the art of fusing to genres...or to look at it another way, they created their own genre and perfected it on this album with 12 quality tracks of well written songs.

This album is not for fans of metalcore or death metal that like consitent intense music throughout the album. Found on Determination is melodic songs that are not heavy but focus on the aspects of rythym that make metal enjoyable. Its for metal heads who enjoy fusion bands, metal heads who enjoy melodic death metal that gets really intense, angry and energetic at times. This band is definatly something different than common metalcore bands, and they offer something different than death metal bands.