Review of Destinity - Synthetic Existence

Three releases in three years, and the French band Destinity are still steadily chugging along with an undeniable fervor. I’ve got to admit that these guys surprised the hell out of me with the jump in maturity their musicianship and style has undergone since the 2003 release Under the Smell of Chaos and 2004's release In Excelsis Dementia. Though their previous album wasn’t a horrible album by any means, it suffered from a serious lack of originality and the inability to blend their differing styles into a single coherent musical vision. With Synthetic Existence, Destinity have managed to correct and overcome many of the issues that confined them to bland, uninspired mediocrity. Now, Destinity are steadily making a name for themselves as they constantly progress with their formidable blend of forward thinking symphonic black metal and brutal death metal.

For any album there needs to be either shifts in dynamics or substantial and noticeable variations within the music to keep the album interesting. Destinity makes use of both with surprising ease. They flow seamlessly from ostentatiously played symphonic black metal into explosions of violently furious death metal. Throw in a bit of thrash sensibility, Gothenburg tinged melody, and emotional interludes of acoustic guitars, and this album is an absolute runaway progressive mindfuck; all corners of death and black metal find their way flamboyantly thrusted into one all encompassing style.

The vocals find themselves constantly altering throughout the songs. Barking death metal growls find themselves melting into earth shattering goregrind grunts. This is then spliced with ample snarls ala black metal and spliced with the occasional and very tasteful addition of clean vocals. The drums are expertly played with an extreme sensibility and intense variety of style that helps the whirlwind of genres stay on a sensible track. The guitars, which are the most dynamic and progressive element to the music, flow with surprising ease through the differing subgenres. My only serious problem with the sound of Destinity is that the keyboards often sound trite and uninspired, ending up as more of a burden than anything that really adds to the overall impressiveness of the compositions.

The hardest part of playing a mix of both black and death metal is knowing how to keep a constant variety while maintaining a constant integrity to the foundational sound of the band without leaning too heavily on one particular facet of the band's sound. Stand up and take notice, Synthetic Existence is just such a progressive blend of dynamic and progressive variation that an album like this needs to become a success. Track “In Nuclear Light” is by far the most brutal track, showcasing the intense vocals and sick guitar riffs of Destinity while they chug forward on their path of destruction. “Deconstruction of Times” prides itself on being the most melodic and slightly epic of the album, bringing the dynamic tension of Synthetic Existence to the forefront, another great high point of the album. “Evolution : Devolution” is another amazing song which showcases the commanding control of variety and balance Destinity wields.

Despite the impressive level of originality Destinity is marked by, many of the compositions outside of those I mentioned suffer from becoming quite mundane rather quickly. Though they’ve obviously found the exact direction they want their sound to take, the songwriting still lags behind during many parts of the album, causing the overall interest of the album to decrease. Despite that fact, there's no denying the beast that lurks underneath this album.

Release Details

Destinity

Synthetic Existence

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