I hoped it wouldn't be... but it is... melodic Swedish death metal. After a fairly strong yet all too long orchestral synth intro (damn near three minutes) these cats drop into an EP's worth of very typical and unassuming melodic Swedish death metal that goes by the books: Shitloads of tremolo picking, some clean breaks, generic screaming vocals, dual guitar harmonies, a few slightly discordant and frantic passages, etc. The only thing they do that's a bit different is add in synths, which I think is actually pretty weak here. The intro's alright, but the synths really junk up the songwriting once the other instruments are involved. The clean parts are also a bit more atmospheric and unusual, but they're still not good. I don't like the recording either. The guitar tone is too thin, the drums are too rigid, the mix is uneven in favor of vocals and percussion, etc. The vocals sound really damn good, as do the synths, but everything else is problematic. The guitar playing gets a little sloppy too, the note-based riffing definitely has its share of flubs involved. There are a scarce few chunkier breakdowns (see key moments of power in "Forlorn Hope"), and surprisingly those are the strongest moments on the disc (usually it's quite the opposite with these acts), while the worst riffs are by far the irritating metalcore-ish hammer-on/pull-off runs. The first 10 seconds or so of "Train Wreck Orchestra" are infinitely more energetic and creative than the rest of the EP, but things rapidly decay into one of the sloppiest and most ragged performances herein. What a waste. Somehow the layout looks fucking awesome, maintaining a consistent look with lots of dirty, bleak green textures alongside images of castles and swords (far cooler than it might sound). All of the text is crisp as hell, compactly arranged and easy to read. I'm not that into the lyrics just because they're sort of typical abstractly personal jaunts with a million references to blood, bleeding, etc. They could be worse, but I was hoping for something more interesting based on the quality of the appearance. The same goes for the music. This CD looks fucking sweet and really had me expecting something quite good, but the songwriting doesn't deliver at all. In fact, if I must be so honest, this is musically one of the worst such records I've heard of this nature as of late. It's terribly boring. A shame. Whoever did the layout deserves praise, it really does look amazingly cool. Oh well.
[Reflections of Ruin]
Running time - 24:39, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: they're all quite bland]
Reflections of Ruin Records - http://www.reflectionsofruin.com
