Misanthropic
Soulreaver
5.7
So Dave Rotten’s (Avulsed) Xtreem music (formerly Repulse Records) has given up on the extremely shitty grind of his old label and gotten themselves some semi decent acts. First Verminous and now this German melodic death act. To be honest I was tempted to just write, “read my Harmony Dies review”, as my input for this album, but that wouldn’t be very professional now would it? So what we have here is basic, downtuned, competent death metal with hints of melody. Just like Harmony Dies, nothing special or overly brutal, but not too mellow or artistic. Mainly due to vocalist Steffan’s best Johnny Hedlund impression, the overall result comes across like a more melodic bastard son of Benediction, Morgoth and Unleashed. Take that as either classic old school death metal or aging, redundant death metal. Steffan’s deep roar actually is the harshest part of the music, as the actual riffing itself is pretty controlled and mid tempo. Harmony Dies may actually be a little more “Brutal”, but overall the comparison in overall delivery is a push. I doubt Harmony Dies could pull of the death n roll vibe that starts standout track “The Play” constantly shifting riffing that covers all of death and black metal bases. The melody in display isn’t the expected Swedish weaving, but a more thrash based melody more indicative of their thrash peers (Kreator, Destruction, Protector), so don’t expects lots of galloping dancing solos and harmonies, just plenty of rock solid driving riffs. “The Lie” leaps out as another varied multi-paced song that shows Misanthropic as crafty writers, although still in need of some tightening up. The pace of the album is a welcome change from the US blasting style of death metal that forgoes actual songs in favor of riffs based around amazing drumming. As if to enforce their old school approach with some extra merit, “Admission Free”, sees Misanthropic exploring a moodier side with crawling Autopsy like revulsion, and while a surprising foray into death metals slower side, it never really takes off or peaks despite its promising build. Misanthropic’s attempts at being more savage though fall short, as the forced blast that arise in “Into The Night” and “Nervous Breakdown” let down the otherwise superbly melodic refrains and ominous solos. Musicianship and production wise, I think they still need to tighten up a bit, as the slappy snare drum sound makes the drums sound demo-ish, and the slightly empty guitars actually glean some of the power from the riffs. The mix of these two things eventually makes the overall sound come across as somewhat amateurish, despite generally solid playing. Also I’d like to see them be a little more adventurous with their song writing, while certainly competent, it’s all pretty drab, and once in while you hear unsure steps towards something "different”. Take the ever so clever break at 1:27 in “Living You”, more of this experimentation (as well as their propensity for instrumentals-there are 3 here) mixed with their solid old school death metal, could make an intriguing mix. An unspectacular but promising debut from a band that could either disappear into death metal obscurity or make a noise in the Euro death scene. (They are far too tame to impress the speed obsessed US fans). I’ll keep an eye out.
