Review of Cenotaph - Saga Bélica

I was wandering through my local metal supplier looking for just about anything new that grabbed my interest. While searching through the vast numbers of CDs I found one by a band called Cenotaph. I had never heard of the band before and decided to check them out, for I am always open to a new band to bang my head to. I opened the CD before buying and looked through the inlet and just by judging from the bands promo photos I figured they were a death or thrash band. I bought the CD and hurried out to the car eager to listen. On my way out I checked out the inlet again and came to the conclusion these guys must be from Spain or Italy possibly, although the album was recorded in Germany. I believe this is my first experience with metal from that area of Europe. I started up the ignition and popped in my new purchase to hear what started to sound like a good album. It started out with some death growl chanting only to start with a fast hard-hitting riff. Then I heard the vokills. The vokillist, Edgardo, starts with kind of a raspy almost black metal style, but then he'll go into a death growl, then next to just plain shouting, then there are other times when he'll quickly hit a high-pitched note almost power-metal like in style, then there are times when he'll give a high-pitched scream in the vein of Phil Anselmo of Pantera, Down, etc. I think this is the main reason I just really can't get into this album after listening to it, time and time again. I try to like this album, but their singer is just all over the map when it comes to singing and it just really bothers me for what ever reason. Another complaint I have with the album is the fact that the drum production is pretty crappy by today's standards. The double-kick sound is some of the worst I've heard. It sounds like someone beating the dust out of the rug. This is quite a disappointment considering the fact that their drummer, Oscar, is a quite capable metal drummer speed-wise and he can really get those double kicks going. That's the main reason their production score got really knocked, because the rest of the production on the album is descent, but the drum production, mainly of the double-kicks, is garbage. My last complaint about the album is the fact that the lyrics are less than inspired. They often resort to talking about how extreme they are, and how they stay true to death metal, and they really aren't all that interesting. The one thing I do like about the album is the great death/thrash riffs that guitarists, Samuel and Eduardo, throw out at you. These guys can shred and there are some really cool fast solos in this album. I think my favorite is in the last song titled after the CD. But other then that there just isn't anything much else I can really praise about here. Maybe if this band can find a new singer that can pinpoint down what he wants to sound like, and find someone to produce the next album with a little more attention to the drums I may consider buying Cenotaph's next outing. But as of right now, I don't plan on it, and I imagine Saga Bélica will soon start to collect dust. Overall this is a very mediocre release from a very mediocre band. The only reason the overall score wasn't lower was because of some of the cool guitar riffs thrown in there. Other than that I wouldn't recommend this to anyone really, unless you see it for under $10 (which I doubt you will), then maybe consider picking it up.

Release Details

Cenotaph

Saga Bélica

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