Total Devastation "Roadmap of Pain" CD
[Firebox]
I guess you'd say this Finnish band plays a groove-laden form of industrial death metal that has a modern thrash sort of sound, sort like a mix between the first Machine Head record and the first Meathook Seed record. Relatively tasteful uses of synths and electronic textures are scattered throughout the tracks, as are numerous tempo changes, gruff vocal growls, etc. I think that some of the songs can be a bit long for their redundancy and lack of overall variety, but this isn't bad aside from some minor issues with the recording that set them back ever so slightly. The guitars and vocals sound awesome, and what I can make out of the bass (it needs to be louder) sounds fine as well, but the drums are far too rigid and the electronics, while handled very well, are mixed too far up front, and that makes things messy. The rigidity of the percussion cuts straight through the mix, but the muddiness of the electronics' volume confuses things in the center, so guitars, electronics, and vocals are all fighting or their place. At times the riffs can be too groovy for their own good, but some of the raging blasts of speed are a great change of pace (see "Fragments"), and for the most part the songs are solid. A bit too consistent, but solid. The layout's actually really damn cool. The imagery is all crisp and visually interesting, the colors are consistent, there are some surprising illustrations and painted textures inside the booklet, the typefaces are clean and tight, etc. The lyrical content is really simple and does nothing for me, referencing pain on many, many, many occasions, but whatever. I must say that, to me, this CD is a bit boring. I think the record lacks movement as a whole and the mix can be a distraction even though technically everything sounds pretty good. Mixing in more slower and chugging tracks like "Let it Bleed" would be nice, as the thick melodic chords are definitely fucking powerful. The dynamic shifts and clean guitars/orchestrations in "Ignoring Pain" are also excellent - in fact the final three songs of the disc are quite a bit more interesting than the rest, perhaps suggesting that a great EP would've been a better idea for a release than an overbearing full-length? Either way, this is a professionally handled release that points to a potentially brighter future. So I have to give the band credit for that. (6/10)
Running time - 45:28, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Fragments, Let it Bleed, Ignoring Pain]
Firebox Records - http://www.firebox.fi

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