Cast From Eden
The Deafened Art of Bleeding Secrets Automated On Deadlines
7.6
Yes, from the label that brought you Maroon’s Antagonist, this is a review of a nearly three year old album, but hey they send ‘em, we review ‘em.
You can probably guess from the moniker, album title and cover that this is metalcore.
Ok who is still reading?
Cast From Eden are one of those talented, yet short lived outfits that plague the US metalcore scene (Hamartia, Shai Hulud, Prayer For Cleansing, Dead Blue Sky, Endthisday, etc). This being their only output, is the sort of death metal tinged metalcore that has some keyboards thrown in and the end result comes across a bit like the aforementioned Dead Blue Sky.
For a three year old album it still sounds decent, but the flat production hinders this recording a bit, especially compared to today’s polished and pummeling efforts. The songwriting itself is pretty good and hailing from Kentucky, you can here some of nearby North Carolina’s scene (Undying, Prayer For Cleansing, From Here On, Heartscarved) within their layered melodies and emotional prose and would have been a perfect fit for Tribunal Records' early roster.
That being said, drawn out song length, the lack of polish and overall tightness quells some of the sumptuous melodies and riffs as was the case on the original release of Prayer For Cleansing’s The Rain in Endless Fall, but the primal tone does give the music a raw and sort of bared soul atmosphere rather than overly glossy or synthetic heaviness. The vocals are a deeper than usual death metal growl and free from clean crooning or whining, giving the effort far more of a death metal lean than their peers, but the keys and multi layered harmonies keep you reminded this is metalcore.
After an untitled intro, “Alt” pretty much sets the tone for the entire album; a mix of bruising breakdowns, shimmering harmonies and delicate synchs, but again it's all a little grainy due to the production. “Escape” has more of a death metal rumble, with angular riffs rather than the prior songs' melodic dramatics though they do surface later in the song. The nearly eight minute “Control” is the album’s highlight with a perfect but explorative mix of hardcore, melodic metalcore and death metal - the kind if stuff that three years ago may have been hailed as mildly inventive, but now has become cliched commonplace. The mid song harmony and solo is pure Prayer for Cleansing worship, but then they follow up with more death metal beef than PFC ever managed. Still, I can’t get past the rusty production and slightly sloppy musicianship even if it's often offset by the superb harmonies. After another untitled ambient track, “Delete” starts with delicate acoustics, again commonplace now, but done quite well here considering the age of the material, and the track staggers into a solid, mid paced yet dramatically structured opening that I would have liked to have seen developed further rather than careen into the familiar up-tempo, keyboard laced gallop. “Backspace” and "Shift"finishe the album off, and it's more of the same, not really delivering anything too different, but it’s still enjoyable.
I’m torn on this, I’m glad I heard it, and I enjoy it, but it may have had more impact had I heard it when it came out and it is admittedly laden with metalcore cliches that over the last three years since this album's release, have been beaten to death. Still, I highly recommend this to fans of any of the bands mentioned in this review as it certainly compares quality wise if you can get past the production and overabundance of the style in today’s metal climate.
