Malstrom "Obligated by Obscurity" CD
[self-released]
I can't quite decide how I feel about this band. I can definitely state that their brand of somewhat blackened death/thrash has some potential, while at the same time this demo definitely has some rough patches that need some work. From a musical standpoint I think they're on the right track. They write cool riffs that come across as a little more creative than most bands, and despite songs that can be excessively long they actually make use of the time well and use strong transitions and buildups to keep the structures cohesive. Really the only "black metal" influences come in the form of some clashing chords that exhibit a little bit of a Norwegian dissonance, whereas elsewhere there are a lot of traditional metal riffs somewhat akin to a heavier Iron Maiden, with melodic basslines that don't just mirror the guitars, etc. The vocals aren't doing much for me at all, though. The vocals are partially delivered in a strained scream, which often shifts over into a strained shout that kind of leans towards singing, and that approach just isn't working here. At times it sounds promising, but... it really sounds forced and the "singing" elements are too faint and halfassed to add the proper degree of emphasis. For example, "Eleven" has this one weird acoustic break with some progressive rock-esque singing and background vocals (potentially Opeth influenced) that really demonstrates all of the problems with the vocals, not to mention the fact that this passage is really quite powerless without a thicker and more professional recording. And there's a lot of that kind of thing happening here - that is to say that interesting riffs and potentially forceful passages suffer from inefficiencies. "I Am Become Death" is among the only tracks that feels inconsistent to me, opening with a staccato sort of riff that just sounds out of place and bland to these ears, then shifting through several acoustic passages that should probably be explored further, as many of the heavy riffs in this track simply lack the pizzazz present in most of the other songs. "Into the Maelstrom" opens with clean guitars and builds in slowly with distorted backing chords, and despite losing steam here and there does offer a couple of intense guitar melodies. The recording's definitely dirty, but were the performances as tight as possible I'd be a little less bothered by it. No matter what they need a smoother and more controlled set of tones to properly represent their songwriting, but the choppiness of the guitar tone brings out a noticeable degree of sloppiness in the playing. For the most part everything's a little rugged and it definitely sounds like a demo, so... glossing over some of the percussion and trying to achieve a greater sense of global fluidity would be nice. The vocals need the most work here since they sound really thin and also lean out in front of the music. There are also several tuning issues noticeable in a lot of the dual guitar work, so that's something else to watch out for in the future. The packaging is printed from a color printer and I'm not really digging it. I don't like that the entire back cover is an uninteresting live shot of the band, the general appearance is inconsistent and lacking in quality, etc. No lyrics are included, so I'm not sure what's up there. The more I listen to this the more I'm convinced that the actual songwriting is pretty good here, to the point where I really want to like this, but I can't overlook the fact that this disc suffers from too many commonplace blemishes of the average demo. Tightening up the performances and straightening out the tuning issues, along with putting a little more effort into the visual presentation, could've garnered a more positive review from me, but they'd need to put more work into the vocals and the recording quality to really start to blossom into their full potential. I hate to be so critical, but... it has to be done. There are some excellent riffs here though, so I'd like to see this band grow. (5/10)
Running time - 33:23, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: they all have their ups and downs]
Malstrom - http://www.malstrom.net

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