Empyrean Sky "The Snow White Rose of Paradise" CD
[Wormwood]
I didn't know what to expect from this. Part of me thought it would be alright, but then I saw the inexcusably ridiculous band photos inside the booklet. Expect full-blown cheesy metal poses including "the horns", fake animal skulls, studs and leather, grimacing faces... fucking ridiculous. And they look like they're fighting back laughter in every shot, so what's the fucking point, is this a comedy album? I hate that shit. Way to make yourselves look immature and foolish. All of that had me expecting the worst... so, I was relieved to find that the music is actually pretty damn promising in fact. Which makes me want to smack the shit out of these guys for putting such ridiculous photos in the packaging, but enough of that. This is basically diverse metal with influences being drawn from progressive metal, thrash, melodic Swedish death metal, and of course good ol' traditional heavy metal. The band's a trio with one dude on vocals, guitar, and programming, one on guitar and programming, and one simply taking rhythm guitar. Meaning that, yes, they do use a drum machine. A setback? Yes. But a minor one, because the programming has been fairly well handled, and the drum tones are only mildly weak and electronic sounding (I've heard plenty of triggers that sound worse than this). There's a lot of synth work as well, which I could go either way on. It's a bit vibrant, but they keep it under control and make sure that the vast majority of the keyboard accents make sense in the context of the songs. The playing is usually tight as shit too, including the awesome basslines (which were handled by one of the guitarists, I assume). Of course a live drummer would be critical to offer the songs even more force, but they could make do with machines if they could score a better recording. The sound here is alright, but it's not doing their writing justice at all. The mix is too jumbled and details get lost frequently. The drum programming is far crisper than anything else, so that jumps up above the rest of the instrumentation and causes a distraction, while the basslines just barely peek through and the guitars sound a little rugged at the fringes. I'd like to hear louder bass, warmer percussion, and a more controlled and taut guitar sound, mixed to allow everything its own space without lacking unity. The vocals are probably the most well handled aspects here, aside from the amazingly awesome acoustic passages. Writing-wise damn near every song tops six minutes, (most running seven or as many as 12), with tons of changes ranging from the generic to the more atmospheric and unexpected. Sneering vocals ala every melodic Swedish death metal band are the dominant delivery, along with singing that ranges from tasteful midrange singing to a slightly more feeling-oriented raspy style, or a few soaring high notes ala Queensryche. Now, the songs certainly do not need to be as long as they are, these guys haven't mastered the Opeth technique of pulling off epic song lengths that weave between dynamics, and it's probably a coincidence that the shortest song ("Peak of the Fall") is full of some of the finest riffing herein (tons of melodic chords, a tasteful old school Metallica-esque solo, classic midpaced thrash rhythms, and excellently arranged tremolo picking), but I can live with it for the most part. The layout? Questionable. I actually like the front cover, the painting chosen is cool and blends well with the photograph. I'm not big on the fonts at all, but that art is cool. However, once you open the booklet it's all over, as mentioned above. The lyrics are no good either, all dealing with love on some level. Not in a ballad way, just in a weird and cheesy/uninteresting way. My #1 recommendation for this band would be to cut all that shit out right away. There is absolutely no plausible excuse for putting such stupid photos in a CD with music of this caliber. It's an immature decision that is an absolutely absurd way in which to represent your music. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that this CD has been thrown away or ignored by a number of reviewers just because they assumed it was going to be terrible as a result. The music is professional and it needs to be presented with a professional attitude. Beyond that, all they really need to do is work to achieve a better recording. I'd wager that their songwriting and performances will continue to improve with further practice, so I'm curious what they'll do next. Ignoring the packaging this is still a flawed effort, but it's got so much going for it that I'm still pretty impressed on some level. They need to polish it up, and they do need more time to blossom, but this is one of those efforts that truly cements itself as a creative piece of work. Despite some of my more aggressive commentary here, I think these guys are quite talented and I really want to see them take full advantage of it. If I had to pull out the ol' "Sounds like?" card, I'd say it's an eclectic mix of bits and pieces of everything from "Ride the Lightning" era Metallica and mid-period Queensryche to Dissection and more contemporary acts like Into Eternity and Children of Bodom. A busy disc, but one with an amazing level of promise. (6/10)
Running time - 47:50, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Love Poison, Peak of the Fall]
Empyrean Sky - http://www.empyreansky.com

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