UMUR
"The Equilibration of Minds, Vol. I" is the debut full-length studio album by German death metal act Pictura. The album was independently released in May 2014. Pictura originally formed in 2005 under the Beltane monicker and released the 2008 "Expressionist" album before changing their name to Pictura in 2010. So if you count the Beltane album, "The Equilibration of Minds, Vol. I" is actually the band´s second full-length studio album.
The music on the album is progressive death metal featuring both deep growling, higher pitched aggressive snarling, and clean vocals. The tracks are predominantly slow- to mid paced and features brick heavy yet quite sophisticated riffs, acoustic/clean guitar sections, haunting leads, and relatively complex rhythm work. Opeth is the most obvious reference (listen to the lead guitar tone on "Streets" and tell me that doesn´t sound like the lead guitar tone on "Blackwater Park (2001)" by Opeth), but I´d probably also mention fellow countrymen Dark Suns among the influences.
The band are very well playing and the extreme vocals are also delivered with conviction. The clean vocal parts sung by Marius Borjans (who also sings the growling vocals) are not anything out of the ordinary though. He has a very regular sounding voice and there´s nothing distinct or especially recognisable about it. The vocals are thankfully not awful though and he gets the job done, but the clean vocals don´t add that extra to the music that they could have with a more distinct sounding clean vocalist.
The sound production is relatively well sounding, but I have a minor complaint about the drum sound. It features a clicky sound (especially the bass drums) and the album could have prospered from a slightly more organic sound. Overall "The Equilibration of Minds, Vol. I" is still a quality progressive death metal release, and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.