UMUR
"Demiurgus" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Pennsylvania based death metal act Equipoise. The album was released through The Artisan Era in March 2019. Equipoise formed in 2015 and released the "Birthing Homunculi" EP in 2016. If I read the credits right, it looks like Equipoise is a seven piece featuring three guitarists, a keyboard player, a drummer, a bassist, and a singer. That´s a pretty big band but Equipoise utilize every member to the fullest. In addition to the permanent lineup, Equipoise have invited quite a few guests to perform on the album (predominantly to perform guitar solos).
The material on "Demiurgus" is a busy, technical, and progressive type of death metal. It´s melodic and neo-classical influenced with both deep growling and higher pitched snarling vocals (think the bastard child of a menage a troi of Necrophagist, Obscura, and Dragonforce). Equipoise play a million notes at any given time during the album´s playing time (except on the short mellow instrumental pieces), and this is definitely a musician´s album, composed and performed to make your jaw drop. As a more casual music listener the soundscape can seem a bit chaotic and packed, and Equipoise certainly aren´t familiar with the word subtility. Three guitars doing fretboard runs, while the keyboard player spits out a thousand neo-classical influenced fast-paced piano notes, while the bassist plays a million notes on his fretless bass, which don´t always seem like they fit with the rest of the music, and the drummer playing very fast and technical rhythms. Your ears sometimes feel like they are about to explode from the overload of sounds and notes.
As a musician I´m impressed by the skills of Equipoise, but as a composer and reviewer there are some issues here which I can´t ignore. I haven´t mentioned the vocals much yet, and there is a reason why that is. They simply aren´t worth mentioning, compared to the instrumental part of the music. Neither the growling vocals nor the higher pitched snarling vocals are performed in a way that brings much to the music. They lack uniqueness and a more powerful aggressive sound. It doesn´t help that they are placed too low in the mix. The compositions themselves also lack memorability and hooks (which makes them hard to tell apart). I´m often thinking these tracks are written to show off the musicians skills rather than give the listener a full listening experience where the skills and the songwriting go hand in hand.
So "Demiurgus" is actually a bit hard to rate. On one hand it´s a high quality release featuring high level musicianship and a clear and detailed sound production, but on the other hand the actual compositions often drown in the musicians competing on how many notes they are able to churn out. I miss coherence and memorable songs. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is therefore a compromise.