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Damim > Purity: The Darwinian Paradox > Reviews
Damim - Purity: The Darwinian Paradox

Great modern death metal - 95%

differer, June 10th, 2009

Did you ever bump into an album that, on first listen, was really boring? So boring in fact, that you thought about not giving it a second chance at all and getting rid of it at once? If you did, I sincerely hope you gave the album another spin or two – otherwise you might have missed out on some great music, which is what very nearly happened to me with this one. Sure, there are bound to be things that go unnoticed the first time around, on any album, but rarely does the entire musical idea require repeated listening. ‘Purity: The Darwinian Paradox’ is one of those rarities.

Initially, I thought Dãm was just another silly At the Gates rip-off. The music did have a strange mechanical or “industrial” vibe to it, as well as a general murky feel, but I didn’t really think twice about it at first. The songs seemed to repeat themselves endlessly without any variation or, indeed, original ideas. The thing is, there IS variation, but of a very subtle nature; it is precisely this barely noticeable change in mood, riffs and songwriting throughout the album that makes it different from anything else I’ve ever heard. Rather than giving the listener anything on a silver platter, this is the type of music that forces you to work hard to find the hooks – but trust me, it’s worth the effort.

There is a specific style of riffage that, even though frequently used by a lot of bands, I always associate with At the Gates; remember the verse of ‘Blinded by Fear’, with palm-muted pedal notes and a simple “melody” played on a higher string. This is Dãm’s main weapon of choice, utilized to its full capacity, if not a little beyond that. It may not seem like much, but here’s the catch: there are (at least) three guitar parts being played simultaneously all the time, almost never in complete unison. Not once does there appear a clear lead melody – or a solo, for that matter. Instead, there are little tricks and intricacies that are almost deliberately hidden from the listener – pinch harmonics, short melody lines, effective harmony notes and more – creating a disturbing feeling of “that wasn’t there before” on each new listen. This heavily textured guitar work is also applied to parts of different styles; there are tremolo-picked chord progressions backed up by blast beats, as well as slower sections where power chords move up and down the neck, much in the way Carcass wrote some of their greatest riffs. It should also be noted that the clean guitar (only heard on two separate occasions) is not the arpeggiated quasi-melodic plucking you’d probably expect. It’s something I like to refer to as “guitar-by-the-fire”: merely strumming through simple chord movements. The intro to ‘Body Temples of Sorrow’, where it first appears, is one of the more surprising moments on the entire album.

Besides the guitars, the vocal performance is also of top quality. Nathanael Underwood actually sounds very much like Jeff Walker here, in more ways than one. His output is a bit more varied, with an attempted low growl and blackish scream now and then, but generally he sticks to the type of voice that’s heard on Carcass’ ‘Heartwork’. This fits the music just about perfectly, but what strikes me the most is his phrasing. Again similarly to Mr. Walker, he creates a multitude of rhythmic variations simply by the way he places the words to the riffs, only very rarely singing “to the beat”, so to speak. This is exactly how harsh vocals should be performed. There are clean vocals here as well, but there’s no need for alarm – the voice resembles those of the better grunge singers like Layne Staley, or even someone like Kristoffer Rygg. Not that it sounds the same, but the style is similar: Underwood is swaying into and out of the intended notes without once sounding out of tune at all. There is attitude in his voice, with no trace of whining.

Drummer Jaime Gomez should not be left unmentioned either. While he does use the “thrash-beat” a little too often (At the Gates, again, wouldn’t you know it), many of the other things he does here are breathtaking. The beats and in particular the fills are innovative – not necessarily groundbreaking but original, nonetheless. Gomez is, for his part, responsible for keeping the music interesting. His drumming is not the most technical in the world, but there is certainly no need for it to be.

One track needs to be singled out, and that is the Carcass cover. It is, luckily, separated from the others by a moment of silence, but I fail to see a reason for recording it. Seeing that we’re talking about a play-through that’s almost identical with the original, it seems to have been put here simply in order to get some friends to the studio – guest vocalists and solo guitarists by the numbers, and the only guitar solos on the entire album. The track is played well enough, but does seem quite pointless. It should have at least been just a bonus track or something.

Other than the negative, I don’t really feel comfortable picking any stand-out tracks from this album; for that, the songs are far too similar to each other. It will suffice to say that ‘Spiritual Void’ is one of the best opening tracks I’ve ever heard. The atmosphere on the whole is, however, another thing altogether. It is incredibly bleak and hopeless – cold, in search of a better word – much like some of the better industrial music out there. This is probably why I get an “industrial” feel from this (as stated before) even if there are no machines at work. What’s more, the guitars are being played quite “loosely”, which makes the album sound all the more rugged and edgy. The few short interludes bordering on ambient are not necessarily the best compositions ever, but have their place here as build-ups – and they work. The lyrics fit the general vibe seamlessly, and of course not only fit, they help build it as well. Being rather ambiguous or “poetic”, an exact meaning will be hard to find, but the feel is that of modern-day despair, urban decay, or something equivalently suitable. In this sense, ‘Come to Dust’ is a notable surprise: how on earth did the band manage to find a Shakespeare poem that doesn’t seem out of place in the context? I will also claim that Underwood’s lyrical skills are not put to shame because of its presence.

What we have here is a band and an album that I thought I wouldn’t like, and continued to think so for a long time. I’ve only recently realised the truth – ‘Purity: The Darwinian Paradox’ is an outstanding album that will take you by surprise; it will haunt you and force you to listen until you understand it. If you don’t give it a chance it will be your loss. This is quite possibly the best debut of the decade.

Unique sound, but marred by repetition - 79%

LoGrade, January 7th, 2007

An album with many hooks, but too many fillers and identical riffing. Dãm makes for some memorable above-average melo-death, but still needs work.

With a classic-death-metal vocalist who will occasionally throws in the clean and surprisingly well polished voice, the band creates a unique and heavy [however gain-ridden] atmosphere. Dãm is at their best on 'City of Envy', which obviously had a lot of effort poured into it.

This is not the story for many parts of the album, however. You will hear many repeated patterns on this album which is a real disappointment.

But apart from that, they lend an eclectic hand to the genre. They mix a little bit of traditional Floridian death to some of the [better] Gothenburg styles, with an overall heaviness that makes for good headbanging.

The production is slightly droned out, but I enjoy this sound. Gives the band a bit more of a classic, traditional metal sound instead of the over-production we hear on a lot of the newer bands in this genre. The vocals and the drumming are definitely the highlights of the album. The guitars, which are not bad by any means, definitely cover the same territory repeatedly throughout the album.

For a debut [full-length] album, it's promising. For the money, it may not be worth it just for the song 'City of Envy', but it certainly rocks the crap out of me every time I hear it.