12 tracks of abrasive metalcore from The Netherlands in 17 minutes. This is actually good for what it is but the band needs to rework their recording a bit to be effective. This is all vocals, guitars, and bits and pieces of drums - with lots of textured midrange and gritty high-end, but no tangible bass guitar at all. There are some low-end tones, but there's no balance at all. I can't really make out much of the basslines, the drums need more density... I don't know, it just needs more meat at its core... thicker, more cohesive, etc. But the writing and performances are great. The songs are short and to the point, there are some great riffs, the vocals are over the top without getting irritating, etc. Even their chaotic pull-off riffs and jarring, caustic chords sound somehow better than most of this stuff. It can still get tiresome, but that's not their focus, so they pull it off. "Silicon Valley" is the longest track at three minutes, with some great churning rhythms (far more moderately paced and hinting at melody at times), and that just crushes. My ears actually adjust to the recording after about 10 minutes or so, and I can live with it, because the guitar tone does have a cool mix of heaviness and dirtiness, but they really need to add more warm low-end to the bass and drums, I believe. The layout is all in black and white and while not bad (it's professionally printed and whatnot) doesn't really catch my attention because something about it looks as though it's a rough self-released effort that's trying to play itself off as something more "real", if that makes sense. The lyrics are succinct and strange to me, definitely confrontational at times, "Grisly physical violence. Grotesque deformity. Disasters of war. Cojoined mutated child mannequins. Obscene genitalia. Nightmarish genetic experiments in fear. Orgy of self consuming violence. Holocaustic conceptions of hell. Gallons of brown heroine dripping off our screens." Not bad. This is actually very good for its genre, and I've never heard anything quite like this from Europe. I'm sure the fact that the band is European has something to do with the reason this is so much better than most American bands along similar lines (they're just smarter and more creative over there in Europe in most cases), but I'll look forward to hearing more from this band. Good work.
[self-released]
Running time - 17:16, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Nemesis, Silicon Valley, Convulse]
Dead Rivers - http://www.deadrivers.com
