Idolater
Regno Anyssus
6.5
Idolater is the one-man death metal project of Mike Chavez, a Californian. His bio describes him as a man seeking to create death metal that is complex, sophisticated, and from the heart, inspired mainly by the seminal band Death. For an amateur, he does an admirable job of accomplishing what he set out to do. Regno Abyssus is a concept album dealing with a tale of a 17th century priest who conspires with Satan. The major drawback is the simple fact that Idolater is a one-man band, and painfully so. Chavez is a skilled guitarist and he shows it off here, with riffs, progressions, and solos that hold their own against more-established death acts. He also performs the vocals well, switching off between a standard death growl, and a raspy, spoken cadence. That is all fine and dandy, but Idolater would benefit by adding a real bassist. In fact, there isn’t any bass at all on the album. I guess that if you can’t play an instrument well, then don’t play it all. The lack of bass isn’t too harmful, but a little depth would add a lot. Lastly the drums are programmed, not played, so they are exactly in time, but they sound too perfectly clean and digital. For a bedroom production, this came out pretty damn balanced and clear, but it’s quite thin and the guitars need a little more heft. The songwriting is complex, as he strived to achieve, and the music itself is almost black metal-sounding. The metal on display here is not brutal or overwhelming to the senses, but filled with melody, but not the happy melodies typically associated with melodic death metal. These melodies are haunting, perhaps like the background music a soul hears as it descends down that deep chasm leading to Hades. With seven tracks stretching a total just shy of 50 minutes, there is plenty of quality blasphemous metal to absorb. The standout tracks include “Church in Flames”, “Demons in the Convent”, and “Sworn into the Legion”. Production issues aside, this is one of the best independent submissions that I’ve reviewed. Idolater has real potential, but Mike really needs to involve a few other musicians, even if just session players. A few full length tracks can be found on the band’s website, so check these guys out.
