Imperial "This Grave is My Poem" CD
[Pluto]
This EP offers up an eclectic blend of metalcore that, while not bad, is still rather generic in its diversity, as the wealth of styles offered are still stale to my ears at this point. Expect some typical tremolo picking and dual guitar melodies ala melodic Swedish death metal, some dissonant and caustic chords borrowed from the more chaotic side of the genre, chunky midpaced breakdowns, a dual vocal attack with lots of snarling screams and growls, and thicker melodic chords and singing vocals on rare occasion to add catchiness and a well rounded sound. Some of the riffs are better than average regardless, but the songwriting still feels a little jumbled and bland to me. They've got more potential than a lot of this stuff that comes my way these days, so I hope they eventually do nail it, but this one's not doing it for me. The tremolo picking is definitely boring as shit and kills the momentum every time it pops up though, and the riffs are kind of strung together without a lot of thought in regard to structure and flow in some cases, but I do enjoy the more melodic areas a lot. "In Ashes I Leave" opens very strong with some creative melodic chords and contains some damn catchy riffing, but things quickly slip into flimsy territory and rarely emerge. "Washed Upon a Nameless Shore" brings in come nice clean guitars underneath tones of layered vocals mixing screaming and singing (but the sample prior to the mosh break is annoying and kills an otherwise slick transition). My favorite passage by far is the start of "Wipe Away the Tears" though, opening with energetic melodic chords and a much more immediately forceful delivery. Of course later in the song there's some terrible tremolo picking and senseless weaknesses that ruin an otherwise strong song that displays their diversity very well, but that's what I'm bitching about here overall, you see? The production is pretty damn good. The guitar tone is thick as fuck without drowning out the bass or becoming muddy, the vocals have a lot of nice texture, etc. I wish the drums had a more fluid and natural sound (the rigidity can be distracting), and the guitars could stand to be a little brighter at times, but for the most part they're on the right track. Visually things look nice and consistent, with a strict color palette and lots of layered high contrast imagery. Lyrically it's less interesting, with largely abstract topics that seem to deal with personal turmoil and stuff, but generic lines like, "We will slit your throats, To kill you would make my heart at ease," do nothing for me. Like I said, on some level they've got more promise than many, but this EP's not clicking with me. It takes a decent amount of punch for this niche of the genre to win me over these days. (5/10)
Running time - 19:10, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: no one song hits me all the way through, but there are some moments]
Pluto Records - http://www.plutorecords.com

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