Destiny "The Tracy Chapter" CD
[Lifeforce]
Damn, another killer German band drops one on Lifeforce. This is intensely melodic metalcore that balances out bits of the more caustic side with a brutally heavy emo edge and a lot of creative riffing reminiscent of the greats like Shai Hulud and stuff like that. Of course there are both singing and vicious screaming vocals, but they pull that off without a hitch. This disc is all about songwriting, they keep things short and to the point with ample changes and a lot of atypical picking patterns and chord phrasings and stuff. They'll hit a dead end on rare occasion, but for the most part tracks like opener "Forsaken Love" are just fucking awesome. "Love is My Death" opens with obscured vocals and a programmed beat, briefly, but thankfully they don't noodle around a whole lot like that. They don't go all out into the chaotic stuff either, just a few more abrasive chords, but most of the riffing is based around dense melodic chords and a few more note-based Swedish styled riffs (loosely, there's no tremolo picking junk). Another cool thing is that these tracks are heavily melodic without getting stuck in constantly throwing in clean parts, in fact, there are rarely any breaks from distortion at all. The recording is pretty slick. The drums are full, the guitars heavy, the vocals fall in line with the instruments, the bass has enough oomph to thicken things up, etc. Check out the beautiful acoustic intro to "Revival of April", as well. On occasion the guitars sound like there's an odd sheen deep in the distortion, but I can't tell what's going on there. It doesn't bother me, I just notice something now and then and question what it might be. It's all pretty damn loud and clear though, with no fucking absence of texture. Nice work. The layout's pretty good, with lots of black space and pseudo collaged imagery of the female figure with sketchy textures and abstractions. They definitely overuse images of breasts, which is a little goofy, but... what can you do? The lyrics, as the record title might suggest, deal exclusively with love gone sour, so I'm not really into that whole deal because they drag it through the mud in all 12 songs with plenty of typical devices. There's a CD-Rom video for "Passing Moments", but I couldn't get it to play? This is a band to watch. This disc could stand to be a few minutes shorter since there's not a lot of diversity from song to song, but I really like these guys' energy and writing style. If they keep at it they'll get even better, especially if they use the singing vocals more effectively. Not bad at all... (7/10)
Running time - 44:00, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Forsaken Love, Passing Moments, Tibi - Omnia Quae Sum]
Destiny - http://www.destinyonair.com

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