Die Alone
The Arcane Suicide Movement
7.5
It's nice to hear bands that aren't doing the same thing as everyone else. Die Alone, a fairly unknown five-piece from Milwaukee, are a band to keep your ears open for in the future. Finding a way to blend the technical fretboard wandering of many metalcore bands with blasting American death metal, they've unleashed their well-executed debut on the masses. The Arcane Suicide Movement doesn't mark the beginning of some revolutionary sound, however, it's solid, and you can tell that every song and their output as a whole appear to be done entirely for themselves.
At times even trudging through a doomy murk, there's a welcome dose of atmosphere that's lacking for many of today's play-as-many-notes-as-possible-as-fast-as-you-can acts. The band's title track even shares a picking method stylistically with more accessible black metal before exhibiting their talents with disorienting guitarwork. Starting with a defiant fast-hardcore riffing, "Never Die" enters unexpectedly. While doing anything but letting up, a sludgy passage makes its way into the song midway through before hysterical yelling joins the mix. I'd like to hear more variety in the singing/yelling, as the few moments where other voices are present in the mix surpass the rest of the music. They also show some ingenuity and a sense of fun that's hard to detect up until "Mending Myself With Staples" when they use this grating artificial harmonic riff that's painfully enjoyable to listen to.
They've got all the right making's for greatness, that much can be said. I'm slightly worried that Die Alone might have a hard time finding their niche - being too heavy for the dyed-black crowd, but too cerebral for the bearded beer-swilling metalhead. Chances are they'll fall into that generally accepted field that bands like The Red Chord, Bodies In The Gears Of The Apparatus, and Deadwater Drowning fall into. I'll definitely be one of the first to applaud the city of Milwaukee for being able to produce some decent death metal, although you'd probably have to pay me to return to that city.
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