End of the Weakness

As the first faux-classical notes of "Arising" ricochet harmlessly throughout your ear canals, it becomes glaringly obvious that Archeon desperately wants to emulate the bigger and more successful Scandinavian bands' approach regarding this sound. End of the Weakness is an excessive and pretentious failed experiment on the band's part. So offensive is this album that Archeon swiftly changed their moniker to Made of Hate and started churning out groovier, Americanized riffs in an attempt to distance themselves from this bomb of a debut. The funny thing is, these guys actually are much more convincing and enjoyable as the technically-simpler Made of Hate.

While Archeon undoubtedly wants to be seen as Children of Bodom's younger Polish twin, their more measured tempos and lack of overtly-brash synth arrangements groups them closer to acts like Norther instead. Kostrzynski is a functional enough shredder, delivering solo after emotive solo throughout many of these tracks. Where he falls short is as a composer. These riffs lack any semblance of girth and bite, reusing many of the same licks and deferring to the spastic leadwork whenever possible. Listen to the rhythm section during the beginning of "Day of the Doom", that melodic tail/lick pops up every few seconds or less. It doesn't necessarily come off like the band is already out of ideas, but more that they are intentionally boxing themselves into a strict compositional style in order to fit a scene.

I suppose the one Children of Bodom comparison that Archeon excels in is the delivery of potent, memorable mid-paced numbers like "Queen of the Night". Despite both bands' reputation as high-energy and reckless, they both take advantage of lulls in the action to deliver more stirring, impassioned melodies and ambiance. Sadly, "Queen of the Night" is the only cut on End of the Weakness to even attempt an atypical approach. "Dead World" tries desperately to be the second coming of "Downfall" from Hatebreeder, but once the vocals and tepid riffing patterns begin, the otherwise-impressive introduction fades in both memory and interest.

Lesniak's keyboards come off as a collective afterthought, with the majority of his contributions bottle-necked into a narrow amalgam of twinkling bells and harsh synth leads. The only keyboard solo worth mentioning is during "Arising", and even that comes off as a bunch of slapped together scale runs. The bonus track "Hungarian Dance" is cool for what it is, transposing a Baroque classic into the metal arena quite effectively. You end up wishing it was longer than a minute, as any period of time not coexisting with Kostrzynski's parched warbling is quite welcome. He even wails "Taste my scythe!" during "Queen of the Night", which is so shameless it is almost endearing.

End of the Weakness would be much easier to digest on the whole if the guitars rumbled with a clarity equal to the zeal in the leadwork's performance. Polrolniczak's rhythm has a decent overdriven crunch to it, but his contributions join the bass in the void as the leads hog the spotlight. The percussive surge of the drums is potent enough, featuring an organic and flat sonic palette that salvages at least some of the proceedings.

Still, very little sticks as Archeon end up going from one faceless ode-to-excess to another. The entire band comes off as a bunch of lost fools, attempting to arise by virtue of melodic prayer alone. See what I did there? What else can I honestly say, though? Check out Made of Hate instead, which channels Kostrzynski's animated leads into a more consistent template.

I admit, I had my power metal with harsh vocals phase where bands like Kalmah, Children Of Bodom, Imperanon, and others were considered the shit. Since those days, many bands have fallen out because they just started to sound bland and artificial, though others have continued to stick around based on value.

Archeon were one of the longer lasting bands to me, even though they borrow from COB so heavily that it’s nearly the same band. This band put more emphasis on the leads, but when I hear it today I now hear mild music inspired by an inspiration that isn’t even worth being inspired by. Yes, they carry on the COB torch decently for what they did (since Are You Dead Yet? was the newest COB album at the time), but I really don’t see any worth in this music anymore.

The leadwork definitely deserves mention first, since they’re quite neo-classical, melodic, and full of flare. The energy is spot on, the performance is commendable, and overall they’re all fun tunes to listen to. My gripe is that the production kills their power – Kalmah have thick production that really juices up their riffs, but here it’s airy and doesn’t last as long as it should. Solos are quite reminiscent of earlier power metal bands and go well with their respective songs in slow or fast fashions. Bass doesn’t do a good job at following up on this success, since you can barely hear it. From what I’ve been able to notice, it doesn’t do anything special except keep the rhythm on its feet. It has some moments where it grumbles out in the open very poorly, but other than that don’t expect anything wonderful.

Drumming sadly is basic stuff; tons of double bass, which does go well with this neo-classical style of power metal. Otherwise everything else sounds metallic and simplistically played. Somehow it’s hard to notice since the drum mix is strictly behind the guitars.

The worst part is the vocals… ugh. Laiho in Bodom might have one of the most annoying singing voices, but somehow I take his early album vocals over this guy’s. The vocals here are bland, boring, unimaginative, unexciting, and seriously detract from whatever elegance you can find. It’s like the vocals in Morbid Angel where it’s merely an exhale of air – nothing more. They’re weaker than those of In Flames, make me question the potential, and sound very amateurish.

The underlying offense is that these guys changed their name and their style to suit the more modern metal crowd. They still play a variant of later COB, but it’s so watered-down and fixed that it literally makes me want to put bullets in their heads… 5.56mm ones from an M4 to be exact.

Few bands sound more alike than the formerly-named Archeon and Children of Bodom. As a rabid follower of power metal and melodeath, I have been following COB for many years, and have never been disappointed. Are You Dead Yet, though with mixed reviews, stands out as more of a balls-to-the-wall album compared to the others, and is one of my faves. This is basically the same layout as "End of the Weakness", about the same length and with prominent guitars and accompanying keyboards. But this one stands out from AYDY because of the much more obvious power metal influence, though maintaining the melodeath sound of the COB album. The result is an album that sounds less "hardcore" than AYDY, and an album that blew me away.

"Arising" is the high point of all high points on the record. Starting with a harpsichord intro it immediately shoots into a blistering mix of power-melodeath that sets the tone for the rest of the record. Songs such as "Dead World" and "Queen of the Night" start out with the keyboard to make way for nice, crisp melodies that are evident in the whole album. And closing the album is the minute long rendition of Brahms' composition "Hungarian Dance No. 5", which is performed very well by the band.

The guitars are fast, melodic and just brutal enough to make it appeal to all metalheads, however light or heavy their tastes tend to be. Keyboards as mentioned are prominent, and the drums are spot-on time.

This is an awesome album, put out by a band which sounds a ton like Children of Bodom, but has their own distinct sound due to the boost of power metal to the already evident melodeath sound, and the very original compositions that distinguish the songs from the ones that COB have written. This is a great release which I heartily recommend to fans of Children of Bodom, especially those who enjoyed Are You Dead Yet?.

Few years ago I started listening to Iron Maiden and than in case of natural progress I heard Children Of Bodom. I must say that for a long time I couldn’t find a band which could look on music in such way. I couldn’t find a band which could be so fresh, melodic, heavy and catching. And it’s natural thing that some day someone will try to copy this wonder group but I haven’t thought that it will be band from Poland and that they will do this in so good but not very revealing way.

Archeon was formed in 2001 in Warsaw by Michal Kostrzynski and Michal Tomaszewski. It supposed to be a heavy metal band but after few changes of line-up and concerts they decided to play melodic death metal by their own manner.
But is it death metal?
We can’t speak about this group without comparing them to finish Children Of Bodom from which Archeon seems to draw very much in spite of their assurance that they are playing their own music in their own specific way. We have here fast and heavy but very melodic guitars, raw drums and some keys. Vocals are brutal like we can find in death metal but with a little blackish overtone. For me this band sound like power metal with death/black vocals. Is it good? I think so.

Main problem of this group is that all songs were written by one person. Exceptions are “Dead world” and “Prayer” in which helped Jacek Le¶niak. Every song sounds the same and have the same composition but luckily we can catch where one songs ends and another starts. Good idea was putting variation of famous classical composer – Stanislaw Moniuszka and at the end of release he have nice interpretation of “Hungarian dance” of Johannes Brahms (something beautiful!). These were very nice surprises! It’s good that some metal musicians are still interested in classical pieces.

This is very good album. Can’t say that it’s revealing because we’ve heard this all before in COB, but it sounds fresh and as for polish scene it’s to reach for this release. These guys knows what they want to play and they will follow this way till the end of their band. I think that’s a good idea and hope that next album will be better. They are young and they are not too long on stage. This cd was recorded because they had an opportunity they didn’t want to miss. They haven’t reinvent the wheel but they have showed a great class.

I wish Poland more bands like because we seems to be ruled by brutal death metal and this album shows that there are still band which can blow some fresh air into market.