Self Destructed Dream "s/t" CD
[self-released]
This brief three-track demo displays some promising metalcore that's of the typical variety these days, that is to say that there are of course melodic Swedish influences at hand, which is unfortunate, but despite some problems that I'll get to later I have to say that I'd far prefer to see this band get signed than to have dealt with the last 20 or 30 bands of this nature that I've had to review from damn near every freakin' label out there. I like these guys better than most of that stuff because they keep the songs short and to the point, and while they do throw in some tremolo picking and melodic dual guitar interaction, they focus far more on brutal power chords and subtle dissonance, with forcefully shouted vocals to boot. There are a decent amount of tapping riffs going on as well, some of which are weak and some of which are pretty cool, but I definitely like the way the basslines are able to pop out and stray from mirroring the guitars all the time. In the end the demo's more mosh than Maiden, with little hints of variety in that "My Guilty Heart" has a nice break of melodic chords and vocals that are more of a spoken yell, while "Memory of Three" is more frantic and fucks with the rhythmic nature of the arrangements a lot more. On occasion there are a couple of cool panning riffs as well, which tends to catch my attention since they're trying to make the differing guitar parts stand out a bit more. Despite the output levels being way too quiet, the recording is actually damn slick for a demo. The guitar tone is almost perfect for this style, notable for the chunky mosh parts, the vocals are harsh but don't overpower the music, the drums sound dense and generally competent, and as mentioned you can actually hear a good number of the bass parts as well. It could use some cleaning up, but just barely, so... the fact that this demo already sounds better than most of the metalcore CD's that I get from labels says something, too. A solid mastering job could probably gloss this one over nicely, so they ought to stick with the same studio or whatever if they ever head back for more. The packaging? Well, there is none. I hate that. It's a CD-R with a printed label on the disc face and that's it. It looks boring and probably won't catch anyone's attention, and honestly I wouldn't have reviewed this demo had the band not contacted me in advance and had me check out mp3's... so I already new I liked it. Hopefully that won't keep them from getting more attention from labels, but who knows? Either way, I like most of what they're doing here. I'd suggest tightening up the performances just a hair (minor aspects of the drumming and lead based guitar lines need work) and throwing in more tempo variation (but not tremolo picking), but other than that this is a solid foundation that in my opinion would be quite at home with a lot of what Eulogy Recordings has been dealing with lately. (6/10)
Running time - 10:10, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: all three are fairly solid]
Self Destructed Dream - http://www.selfdestructeddream.com

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