Viatrophy - Viatrophy
Full-length, Siege Of Amida/Candlelight, June 15th, 2009
So based on the band name alone, I expected some kind of tech/brutal death metal sound. While there is some truth in that assessment, this has a lot more in common with the huge waves of death core bands coming out these days. While a bulk of the music is technical noodling, they manage to boil down to having chugging mosh riffs scattered all over the place. While this band is not bad by any means, it is completely unimaginative and following the trend more than anything. There is no disputing the fact that this band are very good at playing their instruments and creating brutal/technical music, but being able to play technical music does not mean you write good songs. There are moments of catchy melodic glory, but they usually get swallowed in the technical maelstrom. There are also quite a few more quiet/atmospheric breaks interspersed in the chaos, but they do little to save the song from being a wank-fest. Granted this band is not as shred-y as many of their peers, they still have a lot to learn in regards to writing memorable songs. The whole album kind of turns into one long song and not in a good way. Everything just sounds so alike and similar that the record turns into one 42 minute long tech-core jam.
The album has a very modern and overly processed sound; very clean, but lacks any kind of soul or grit to give it a life of its own. The vocals are split 50/50, half being a deeper death growl and the other half being a sort of have screamed pseudo-hardcore shout. The guitars are mostly angular and played in odd time signatures, yet occasionally stopping for a chugging breakdown or clean strummed post-rock kind of part. The bass is buried very low in the mix, so its really hard to get a feel for it. The drums are triggered to death, but with that being said, the drummer has excellent musical chops. There are moments in the record that lead me to believe they might expand into being a bit more experimental in the future, which could really help them expand their sound into something worth listening to. Until then, what you will get is trendy, technical death core. The only upside is that there are no clean/emo like vocals to be found anywhere on the album. That really would have been the coffin nail for this effort.
This band has a lot to learn before they are at the point of writing memorable music. Here is to hoping that changes in the future for them. Otherwise they will be continually lumped into the mediocre death core trend/scene.
Reviewed by E. - 4.5/10
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