Time Signature
Monstrosity in the hands of Belgians...
Genre: tech brutal death metal
Technical brutal death metal can be incredibly awful if npt done right, but, if done right, it can provide the most challenging and enjoyable listening experiences in the world of extreme metal. Fortunately, the Belgian tech/prog death quartet Dehuman belong to the category of brutal death metal bands who do it right.
The nine tracks on the album are, true to the genre, full of changes in time and tempo and feature several instance of brutal blastbeats, but the technical aspects never takes comepletely over, and the many riffs that each song contains are allowed to be repeated enough times that they can seep into the awareness of the listener, allowing one to actually rock out to this album. While brutal to the core, there is still a lot of melody on this album, as a couple of riffs have melodeath qualities to them, and there are also some melodic harmonies every now and then, plus the solos, while technically advanced an shreddy at times, come acorss quite melodic most of the time. 'Spiral Loss' even features a neat atmospheric and progressive bridge and it also features some breakdowns that remind us that breakdowns do not have to suck per se. 'Down With the World' featurew both some old school death-grind passages and some more black metal-esque tremolo picking along with some more melodic death metal-oriented riffs. And this variation is another positive feature of the album, especially because Dehuman manage to keep the album coherent throughout.
Needless to say, the musicianship is top notch and the songs are performed with great precision without sounding mechanical. I particularly like the organic feel to the otherwise clockwork-precise drumming. The growled vocals are perhaps not the most convincing deat hmetal vocals in the world, but, still, I like how they sound like a blend of Marting van Drunen and John Tardy.
Black throne of All creation belongs to one of the better tech brutal death metal releases out there, and Dehuman definitely honor the tradition of legendary bands like Death, Suffocation, and Pestilence. Any fan of tech death metal should check this release out, and I think it will appeal especcialy to fans of Suffocation, Obscura and Gory Blister.
(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)