It's been quite awhile since I heard anything from Antagony, so I was surprised when this disc showed up. It definitely sounds different from their last effort almost four years ago as well. The songs are longer, the performances tighter, etc. There are still a lot of styles present in the songwriting, though for the most part it's a mix of death metal and crunchy midpaced breakdowns that have a metalcore-ish flare. At times the melodic sensibilities flirt with a Swedish sound, which I wish they'd stray away from, but what can you do? The title track hits right at 12 minutes and even opens with a solid buildup that almost has a doomy feel. Sadly all of the tremolo picking that kicks in later deadens that force, though the darker elements do reappear at points, and the clean break towards the end is a pretty nice contrast as well. None of the other songs are anywhere near that long, with "Abre Los Ojos" coming in at less than three minutes and feeling a little more energetic as a result, despite being built largely around the melodic Swedish stuff. "Last Days" opens with clean guitars and shifts quickly into a strong midpaced groove and some hammer-on/pull-off riffs that interact well with the bass; while "Cultivate and Collapse" has a similar intro that's far sparser and lets the basslines play an even role against the softer guitars. For the most part the recording is pretty good. There's room for improvement, but it's fairly crisp and definitely has a dense punch to it, so I can certainly live with it as is. I'd like to hear the bass given a little more room to breathe, and certain elements of the guitar tone could stand for polishing up, but the distortion works great for the slower rhythms and palm-muted riffs. The drums and vocals sound pretty good, though I might like to hear the percussion given more warmth as well. There are no significant issues though, and for a self-released effort the production is actually very nice. I'm 50/50 on the layout, though. The outer packaging all looks consistent and fairly crisp, but the inner pages are a bit more jumbled and don't exactly maintain that thread of consistency. One track has lyrics in Spanish, but elsewhere all of the content seems to revolve around tortured thoughts and struggling to overcome. I'm not really taken by any of the lyrics per se, as I guess some of it's too basic for me. I'm more interested in the music, I suppose. And I definitely think they should try to push for something slightly darker or more creative, as that seems to be where their strengths rest on this album, and the Swedish style is so tired right now that it's not doing them any favors at all. In fact, many of these songs get off to a good start and become bland as soon as the band starts to dive into the tremolo picking stuff. The thick death metal riffs and midpaced chunkiness are much better, and when they add light melodic accents to that style I'm all for it. But that melodic Swedish riffing is really harming the end result here. "Cultivate and Collapse" is a perfect example of this, as all of the crushing rhythms and eerie atmospheres supplied by the slower tempos are awesome, but the faster picking patterns and whatnot are so bland in this one that an otherwise excellent track is severely damaged. They've definitely got some force going on, they just need to harness it and focus on it. The last two tracks on the disc ("Cultivate and Collapse" and "Beneath the Black") are the closest to the mark, faults included, so... hopefully it won't be another four years before their next record materializes.
[self-released]
Running time - 37:19, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Cultivate and Collapse, Beneath the Black]
Antagony - http://www.antagony.com
