The Divining "Reprisal" CD
[Dressed to Kill]
Great looking layout. Really got my hopes up that this would be an awesome CD. Too bad it's totally standard melodic Swedish death metalcore. A little better than average? Sure, and the songs are decent, too. But it still offers absolutely nothing new, and I can only stomach but so much of that from this genre these days. The band hails from Philadelphia but does sound more like a European act, not only due to the slightly higher and more bitter edge to the screaming, but the general tone of the riffs just sounds more like a European metalcore band of this particular nature to me, I don't know why... there's just a certain swagger to the flow. And it's cool that they do throw in more solos than most such bands, but... some of the leads feel hurried, like they were improvising rather than really taking the time to write out the solos to better fill the space and add color to the songs. The lead playing also hints at some of the slight choppiness present in some of the rhythms, so even though they're all on point most of the time, there are a couple of rough patches that need to be tightened up. There are solid moments, but the unfortunate truth is that too often the bright spots simply give way to generic alternate picking riffs and tremolo picking that doesn't really have much feeling. "Beyond the Point of No Return" is a little more memorable in its midpaced tempos and more metalcore based riffing, suffering only due to the impact of the guitar tone on a few of the riffs, "In Hiding" admittedly opens with a pretty damn cool midpaced rhythm and comes off as a little more memorable as a whole, "Thrown to the Wolves" initially has a solid midpaced churn going on that returns at various points, and "Over Distant Shadowed Hills" hits on a few slick melodic chords and memorable bursts of slightly rocked out rhythms in attempting to go for a Soilwork sort of vibe or something. Then there are tracks like "Casualty", "Forsaken by the Light", and "Tongues of Flame" that are your typical American metalcore takes on the whole At the Gates/early In Flames thing with no real deviation from the played out formula whatsoever. The recording's alright but needs some work. The guitar tone has a dry edge to it that does give it some added texture, but it also deadens some of the crunch and adds a sheen to the mix that cuts out some of the bass presence and clouds the overall clarity. For the most part everything sounds okay, and I'm liking the crispness of the vocals, but I think the guitar tone needs to be heavier and a little more controlled, as that could've possibly made the difference for me in how some of this material plays out. As mentioned the layout looks great, with top notch photography and a really artistic eye, so that's a nice touch. The lyrics don't really do much for me as they're typically nondescript expressions of pain, anguish, and perseverance, so... it's pretty standard fare. I don't know, I mean, the thing here is that despite its shortcomings there is a certain degree of energy and quality to the songs that a lot of bands don't have, so I feel bad being so critical of it, but at the end of the day, it's like, look, you know... I've heard about 500 bands in the last five years, maybe more, who sound exactly like this. And I've heard five bands this week that sound exactly like this, too. So you've just gotta do something more to grab my attention. And I think these kids could do it were the solos stronger, the playing as tight as possible, and the recording heavier and more in your face. I'm the kind of guy that's all about strong songs, so even if you're 100% generic I'll hang with that if you're writing strong, convincing material. And this record's getting there, but the shortcomings still stack up against it in the end. Not bad, but try to do something to separate yourselves from the pack since you've got a hint of an advantage in the writing department already. (6/10)
Running time - 36:23, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: In Hiding, Over Distant Shadowed Hills]
Dressed to Kill Records - http://www.dressedtokill.org

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