One Man Army And The Undead Quartet
Error In Evolution
7.9
Like I’m sure a lot of people do, I tend to pay attention to where people from a band I really like end up after they break up. I’m always hoping they do something even better than their previous band but it’s rarely the case. So it is with The Crown. I didn’t really like Angel Blake much but the old vocalist’s new band, One Man Army & The Undead Quartet, managed to plunk down a pretty heavy Entombed inspired death and roll record that, while not outstanding, is a fun listen nonetheless. Now we have the follow-up barely a year later and as you might imagine, it covers much of the same territory with a few stylistic tweaks.
One of the big reasons I liked their debut was the extremely solid sound of all the instruments. There was a genuine punch to the drums and a thick low end to the bass that made you quite literally feel the music. It was a modern take on the classic muscular sound of early death metal bands like Entombed that perfectly complemented the no frills death and roll tunes. Thankfully they chose not to follow the dubious trend of more “organic” production (does organic mean shit??), as the monster sound from their debut is largely present here, with the guitars being slightly less chunky.
The only two areas they really changed things up are a bit in the vocal department and the overall tempo of the songs. There’s occasionally a few melodic back up vocals and some almost clean vocals that frankly don’t really fit the vibe of the music. These vocal missteps are few and far between until you get to the Alice Cooper, cover which is sandwiched a couple songs from the end of the album. I don’t mind cover songs but I hate when they’re in between original material because nine times out of ten bands pick a song from a totally different genre, just like they do here, which sticks out like a sore thumb. Cover songs should always be stuck at the end for exactly this reason, so you don’t have to hear a death metal growler attempt a power metal song. They tried to ease you back in with their only song utilizing keyboards as the next track but it’s still a million times tougher than the Alice Cooper cut preceding it.
As for the tempo changes, they’ve picked up the pace on the majority of the songs here. So much so that many of these stray completely from their previous old school death metal territory into the more contemporary melodeath genre. For me this is a bit of a letdown as I enjoyed their throwback mid-paced death and roll style much more than some of the songs here. At the same time, many of the songs on their last disc topped out at over five minutes so there’s something to be said for getting the point a bit quicker this go around.
Except for trudging a bit too far into melodeath territory this go around, this band still packs a jaw breaking punch on this second effort. Fans of the first record will still find a lot of great material here but hopefully this is as far as they take it in this direction. Lord knows the world doesn’t need another melodeath band, especially one that already rips at another style.
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