UMUR
Self-Destructed is the 3rd full-length studio album by French death metal act The Oath. The album was released in October 2010 by Code666.
The music on Self-Destructed is symphonic blackened death metal. The vocals are growls but on occassion also lean a bit towards a more aggressive snarling black metal rasp. The music is rather synth heavy and classical inspired themes played by the synths are a dominant part of the sound on the album. They are very tastefully played though and seamlessly blend into the music. On some synth dominated symphonic metal albums, the synths have a tendency to completely take over the soundscape and leave the rest of the instruments as backing, but that´s fortunately not the case on Self-Destructed. The music is generally very powerful and there´s good balance between brutality, memorability and melody. To top of a great album, the production also suits the music well.
I´ve had Self-Destructed on steady rotation for quite a while now, and it grows with each spin. It´s not a difficult album to get into, but fortunately there are enough details and intriguing structures to avoid the shallow stamp. It´s not the most original album out there, but that may be my only complaint and a 3.5 - 4 star rating is fully deserved for an excellent symphonic blackened death metal album.