Promises in Blood

While never quite wowing me with their music, Paths Of Possession sure know how to commission/choose really elaborate and astoundingly vivid imagery to adorn their album covers. The imagery of a lone figure with arms spread wide before what appears to be a gateway to another dimension (built into a monument of human bones no less) definitely calls up memories of the glory days of early 90s Swedish death metal where the residual thrash influences were still quite at the forefront, and things were not solely focused on gore and violence. Unfortunately the musical reality of this band is more of a convoluted mixture of melodic, groove and old school death metal that occasionally has some brilliant moments, but never really seems to commit itself. After the independent and definitely low-fidelity debut "Legacy In Ashes", things appeared to be looking up for the band despite the exodus of former Morbid Angel guitarist Richard Brunelle.

The entry of Cannibal Corpse front man George Fisher into the fold has definitely brought a greater edge and versatility to the vocal department, allowing for some extremely deep bellows and barks to accompany the expected Schuldiner and Tardy worship that Corpsegrinder seems to be equally apt at performing. Likewise, the production has taken a very serious uptick to the point where the pummeling sound of the guitars actually conforms itself nicely with the modern punch typical to the melodic death metal style that this band claims. However, the songwriting department has largely found itself in the same place that it was before, unable to fully commit itself to a particular approach and getting bogged down in style-straddling from one song to the next, almost to the point of this album sounding like a split release featuring two or three different bands with the same vocalist.

To be sure, there are some moments where "Promises In Blood" really gets its act together and gets close to sounding like a meaner cousin to In Flames. The standout song from the debut "Darklands" is again the lead off track, only now being reworked into a much more appropriate modernity and still sporting the catchy Iron Maiden-like melodic hooks. "Bleed The Meek" also takes some cues from the Gothenburg formula and gets remarkably close to sounding like a b-side from "The Jester Race" during the Maiden-like passages, while also working in some pummeling grooves that remind a bit of Six Feet Under when at their best, but complementing the Gothenburg elements rather than fighting them. Even when the band shifts away from melodeath and pile on the aggressive death/thrash elements as heard on "The Icy Flow Of Death", there is a slight hint of The Crown mixed in with the Florida influences that give it some cohesion.

Be all this as it may, much of the material that populates the rest of this album suffers from the same sort of unfocused schizophrenia that haunted its predecessor. A classic sample is the 2nd song "The Butcher's Bargain", which listens half like a middle era Cannibal Corpse song, yet can't seem to settle on a particular feel and meanders about with some oddly placed bass solos and Pantera-like groove sections that come off as both random and stale. Similar semi-nods to Corpsegrinder's principle project spliced with recycled ideas from Obituary and Six Feet Under that don't fit together very well. It gets to be a lot like a stew at times with so many clashing ingredients that it loses any distinctiveness and just tastes like a mess. A long exception emerges in the brief instrumental "Erzsebet", which utilizes an acoustic drone not all that far removed from late 90s In Flames and is content to keep things simple and coherent.

Though an obvious improvement in several areas, "Promises In Blood" isn't something that passes for a must have, even in the climate of 2005 where most of the Gothenburg scene had gone to shit and a growing number of old guard American outfits were releasing sub-par material. It manages to edge out some of the weaker material in Cannibal Corpse's back catalog, but it definitely falls short of all the contemporary works by said band, and also lags a good bit behind many of the Swedish stalwarts that it also finds itself emulating during those death/thrash moments that come about fairly frequently on this album and the rest. What's missing from the equation is a proper balance of ambition and cohesion, which is ultimately what separates a solid album from the rest.

Things were beginning to look up for Paths of Possession by the time they got around to their sophomore. The most interesting of the band's developments was the acquisition of ex-Monstrosity and current Cannibal Corpse choker George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher, who would provide a curious contrast to the band's mix of traditional metal and melodic death. A much different environment for the guy, and though he doesn't exactly change it up from his main band, the very difference in the musical content seems to draw out a different edge to this throat. Now, this might well have had something to do with the band's signing to Metal Blade, another positive step which could expose their unique, rocking approach to death metal to a broader audience. And then there's the cover art, which is beyond awesome...

Sadly, Promises in Blood itself does not quite live up to the potential of such an endeavor. Some of the tunes here are repeated from Legacy in Ashes, including "Darklands", "Bring Me the Head of Christ" and "The Second Coming", and while Fisher's vocals and a superior production standard trump the debut cuts, they have not suddenly improved riff-wise. Driving, mid-paced melodic fare that simply doesn't stick to the ears beyond a handful of spins. Several others are taken from a split the band had put out some years prior, including "The Butcher's Bargain" which is just a standard, mid paced piece with chugging and no decent riffs to speak of, the slightly more up-tempo "A Heart for a Heart", and "The Icy Flow of Death", which starts off slow with broad chords and then picks up to the same speed as most of the album.

But there are a few gems, usually newer songs like the title track "Promises in Blood" which is more intense, pretty much what I wanted to hear when I heard that Corpsegrinder was taking part; or "In My Eyes" with its storming percussion and writhing mute floes; or the huge and potent grooving of "Where the Empty God Lies", which just might be the best on the album. Here you get a good cross-section of Fisher's wider potential and the band's underlying concept come to fruition: a guest star making his mark beyond his safety net of saturated viscera. But the album is unfortunately not all that consistent, nor great, and these days it seems to exist only as a cursory curiosity for George's die hard followers. Simply put, Paths of Possession did not have that same level of excitement and intensity that all the Gothenburg and Finnish keyboard core melodeath acts bring to bear, even if their more traditional flavor was refreshing. A lot of the tunes here, while tightly executed, lack that explosive, elusive quality that makes the kids wanna jump up and scream. Slaughter of the Soul this is not, but neither is it totally disposable.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

This album makes me laugh like crazy. I actually saw the band live at the album release show for this having never heard them before with a friend and the whole time we couldn't stop giggling like schoolgirls. What's with the melodic riffs on this album? They sound, honest to fucking god, like the sort of thing that would open a 'Scream' movie; the camera panning over the darkened street while a KICKIN' RAD alt rock song plays. The riffs have that cock rock edge, alt rock with a flair of Gothenburg that would fit just right opening a crappy horror movie. Actually, this pervades the whole album; for a melodic death record (ostensibly), this feels incredibly rockish most of the time: it's not very fast or extreme, the song structures are uninvolved, and everything seems pretty predictable. While the most rockish and silly moments are the most charming, the charm really doesn't make this a good album.

The rockish aspect of this music sort of kills it; yeah, it provides laughs, but it makes the music incredibly boring for the most part. In fact, the best song on the album is instrumental track 'Erzsebet', which has some interesting clean guitar interplay which is absent on the other tracks; little goes on in this album, and what does go on never grabs the listener's attention. The breaks between the heavy and melodic sections are incredibly audible and there's no attempt to make the two primary styles (Gothenburg-inspired melodeath and sort of Catastrophic-style American chug-death metal) merge in a significant way. In addition to this, even the production feels kind of flaccid and restrained; is this release even TRYING to be an extreme metal album? If not, what's the point of the double bass and growled vocals? Hell, it seems like Paths Of Possession should have just taken the most melodic passages, pieced them together, picked up a clean vocalist, and made a decent hard rock/heavy metal EP rather than a really plain and boring melodeath album.

I don't know who this is supposed to appeal to or what the point of it is; most of the riffs are boring, Corpsegrinder's vocals grate against the music, and the song structures are simplistic and plain. All of this just feels extremely restrained and deliberately underplayed; this can't excite anyone and most of the time it doesn't even feel like the band is trying to excite the listener. I don't know, there's just not much to say about a release like this: just skip it and pick up something better.

Corpsegrinder AND Melo-death? Yes please.

An interesting idea on paper, and it piqued my interest enough to buy it. I was duly disappointed as I really should have expected. I'm sad to see that Corpsegrinder is bothering with such pointless projects, as there is really NOTHING that separates this from any other new MetalBlade dreck. Thankfully it isn't metalcore, but it's pretty damn close.

First of all, this isn't death metal, melodic or otherwise. I'm not even sure what the hell this is. It lacks the brutality for death metal, and the, well...melody for melodic death metal. Most of the time it sounds like a poorly played copy of both. You can tell that they tried, but it truly lacks even the basic elements that make the riffs of either genre so great. In the end, it's just painfully forgettable. Corpsegrinder's vocals are essentially the same as new Cannibal Corpse, but far less harsh (why?!) It's funny because at some parts he actually switches into old Cannibal Corpse style vocals, proving that he's still capable of his old style. I guess he just chooses not to use it?

The only song that really stands out is the utterly pointless, but well played instrumental. It features pretty, melodic acoustic guitars for no apparent reason, but it's still my favourite track as it's the only one I can distinctly remember. I wouldn't recommend this to death metal or melo-death fans, maybe someone trying to get into either genre.