Scorched Earth Tactics "Blastradius" CD
[self-released]
Wow, this unusual Finnish act has made some significant changes to their sound!  It's still a strange hybrid of styles, but the writing's definitely better this time around.  I'm still not blown away and think there's room for improvement, but overall I'm really intrigued by where they've ended up here.  Expect everything from traditional metal rhythms and crossover hardcore/punk flare to flurries of technical riffs, atmospheric instrumental elements with prog rock leanings, a few hints of total thrash, and shitloads more.  And none of it's straightforward at all!  Everything's fucked with just enough to make it sound really weird.  The vocals are a blend of strained shouting/screaming that offers a little variety, but nothing that's too much of a great contrast, certainly the performances are more common than the instrumental work.  "Defiance" is a killer track that basically comes across as technical death metal, complete with a few frantic shifts, a little dissonance, and just the right amount of melody.  And what about that funky break with the clean guitars that just a minute later evolves into a weird tapping riff with staccato backing chords!?  If it sounds schizophrenic that's because it certainly is, but I have to credit the band with constructing the songs in a way that makes it work surprisingly well.  "Futile Struggle" represents a weird mix of Tragedy-esque hardcore punk and post-black metal dissonance - tempo and all.  And what about the totally fucked up changes in "Italian Strike"!?  The chord phrasings are totally fucked, the peppy picking patterns have more of a ska sound than a metal sound, and yet they toss in tremolo picked chords and lush clean passages amongst it all.  Very cool.  The melodic lead work is just beautiful and so damn slick, complete with Marty Friedman sounding arpeggios and sweep picking, and alternate picking runs ala Cynic, but even more progressive in tone.  Shit, if they explored that stuff further they'd probably totally kill.  Probably my biggest issue on this outing is that the sound is too thin.  It's super clear, which is excellent for the amount of panning and layering that's going on, thus helping the intricacies show forth, but the core of the mix needs more meat.  The rhythm section is damn close to being on point, and I can live with the guitar tone, but I think a heavier distortion and more robust low-end to the drums and bass would make a huge difference in helping this material pop out.  The vocals just sound too flat compared to everything else, with the kick drums sort of sharing that fate.  But I can really envision this band sounding amazing with a crisp and full recording.  I mean, if this thing had the same recording as say, the latest In Flames record?  Christ, it would be a beautiful, beautiful thing.  All of the artwork is done in high contrast black and white and looks very nice, including some silhouettes of cityscapes and such.  They only include snippets of the lyrics, or at least snippets of text indicating what the songs are about, but I think song titles like "Defiance" and "Futile Struggle" sort of speak for themselves.  It's definitely a clean looking presentation, though.  There are still a couple of issues that I'd like to see the band work through, but for the most part this is an impressive progression from their last demo.  I'm pretty pleased with this.  There's a lot of creativity at hand and I really think these guys deserves to get signed based on this EP. (7/10)
Running time - 17:01, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Defiance, Italian Strike]
Scorched Earth Tactics - http://www.scorched.org

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