Another Kind of Death "Unfinished" CD
[self-released]
Here's a brief three-track CD of diverse metalcore from Spain. The majority of the material sort of sounds like a more chaotic and frantic Darkest Hour. There's a lot of tremolo picking, a lot of dissonant chords, some of that melodic Swedish styled riffing, a flurry of changes within short time frames, shifts in tempo, and blazing vocal screams galore. Some really nice singing vocals come up as well, which actually surprised me at first. That's when I really started to take interest in what's going on here, especially in "If I Should Die Before I Wake...", because the balance of styles is much more cohesive and a bit more fluid. Not to mention the fact that the chorus, as brief as it is, actually borders on being catchy. "Losing Everything" even ends with a couple of minutes of earsplitting feedback, samples, and noise textures... although I honestly find it to be unnecessary. The production isn't bad at all for a demo CD. I love the snap of the snare drum, and despite some overly rigid tones (probably triggers) the drumming is very tight and clear. The aggressive vocals also sound nice. I would probably turn up the singing a little bit though so it doesn't get drowned out. The guitars are way louder than the bass, and I think the bass needs to be turned up a lot. Neither the guitars nor the drums have a lot of low-end tones, so there are some holes in the mix. The guitar playing can also be a tad sloppy at times, so that's something else to work on. The drummer is a like a damn stopwatch, though... nice work there. The CD-R comes in an incredibly professional gatefold sleeve. The layout is great across the board. I like the fonts used for the band logo and the other information, the barely visible photographs inside (printed very dark on a black background) are a nice touch, and the tattered cloths on the front and back covers look rather striking against the stark white background. Sadly they didn't include lyrics, but the quality of the package makes up for that. They should have gone ahead and invested the money in pressing this onto a proper CD as well. Very impressive. Watch out for this band. They're not quite doing anything new yet, but with a tighter performance/recording they'll be well on their way. I like their energy, and that easily gives them an edge - in addition to the fact that they seem to have something more intelligent going on in the thought process than most metalcore bands. (6/10)
Running time - 11:10, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: If I Should Die Before I Wake...]
Another Kind of Death - anotherkindofdeath@hotmail.com

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