By Night "Burn the Flags" CD
[Lifeforce]
Damn, this Swedish act is damn sure going to be one to watch in the future, as their brand of rhythmic metal is pretty fucking impressive here on their debut. I'd definitely cite significant comparisons to fellow Swedes Meshuggah and Extol due to the band's penchant for chunky staccato rhythms and subtle melodic dissonance, but despite extremely precise performances and a clinical delivery it's certainly not as technical as Extol, nor as fucked up rhythmically as Meshuggah. But I have no quarrels with that as it makes the songwriting fairly linear and easy to grasp, without coming across as basic or simplistic either. Honestly the only thing holding this back from completely blowing me out of the water is that the recording is a little too unnaturally mechanical. When you first throw it on it sounds really thin and crispy, so it takes about 10 minutes for your ears to adjust and pull out the thicker low-end tones. I actually really like most of the tones, but I think they need to turn the bass up to make it as prominent as possible without becoming muddy, while bringing the vocals back in to rest against the guitars, plus giving the percussion more of a resonant warmth that would help accent the basslines and hold things in place. The guitar tone is a little thin but it works for making things really fucking clear and accurate, especially when there are discordant layers and little melodic tinges involved. The clarity of the mix really is superb, I just wish the rhythm section had more oomph. They're damn sure on the right track there though, and once you get used to it the songwriting certainly overcomes such minor hitches. It's definitely a consistent listen and there are a lot of similarities between the individual songs, so expect lots of midpaced rhythmic chunkiness and stuttered chord progressions, accents of lightly acerbic leanings as well as some intense melodic chords that don't get too blatant or direct, a few quick runs of death metal influenced riffing, etc. There's also plenty of dual guitar interaction with lots of panning to really bring attention to how many different guitar parts are interacting with one another, which I'm a big fan of. "Completed" is the longest track at more than five minutes, and though not among my favorites (granted none of these songs are weak) it does have a different vibe going on, flirting with some post-hardcore textures and a more spacious delivery that allows for some breathing room in the middle of the disc. "Behind in Silence" is among the more involved tracks with its shifting between riffing styles and more complex layering and metal runs, kicking off a strong set of songs that actually makes the latter chunk of the disc the better half. "Unseen Oppression" is a definite favorite of mine, immediately jumping out with thrashier riffing and some really interesting chord phrasings that sound very atypical against most of what's out there, making for a powerful composition that has a lot more emotion and feeling. Great work... and talk about a beautiful solo! The instrumental "At the End of the Day" opens with gorgeous acoustic guitars and ends up layering distant news samples against midpaced rhythms with far more prominent bass runs (That's what I want to hear!), plus some cello, acting as the only almost laidback track before leading into the more openly active and death metal influenced "Dead or Confused", which tosses in lots of quirky dissonant windings amidst straight tremolo picking and chugging chords. The layout looks nice, even though the cover's kind of so-so for me. I like the coloring and the overall quality of the image, it's just that the subject is a little bland in some ways. The band photo is cool though, and the lyrics are presented in a very clean and compact format across black backgrounds. There are a couple of typos in the booklet and the same lyrics are listed for both "Part of Perfection" and "At the End of the Day" (which is actually an instrumental), but other than that the songs deal with atypical issues for this form of metal, delivering a lot of abstract socio-political commentary on issues like racism and oppression in their more clear statements, but tending to be less direct: "Dominate control possessed by advantage. Exceed oppression unseen unsurpassed. Intrude terminate impasse despair grows. Distance to distortion, confused magnify as a broken defense, suffocation..." This is a damn strong debut overall. They're not the most original band out there, but they look to be pretty young guys, so their technical abilities as well as the overall songwriting quality demonstrated are pretty impressive for a debut CD. I'll be looking forward to seeing how they progress, and I honestly expect them to start making a pretty good name for themselves in the near future. Keep an eye out. I really like this. (7/10)
Running time - 35:42, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: One and the Same, Behind in Silence, Unseen Oppression, At the End of the Day]
Lifeforce Records - http://www.lifeforcerecords.com

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