QUO VADIS — Day Into Night (review)

Album · 2000 · Technical Death Metal

4.5/5 · 2017-06-10
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Yet another death metal band from Montreal, Quo Vadis became my sixth extreme metal purchase from the city of my birth. I had originally put “Defiant Imagination” in my Amazon shopping cart, reviews all seemed to insist that while that album was really good, “Day Into Night” was just a little bit better.

The music served up here is mostly very classy, skillfully played, high speed thrash metal with a strong technical side, not unlike early nineties Megadeth. It’s nothing like the brutal metal of Cryptopsy, the melodic death of Kataklysm, or the exotic multi-faceted music of uneXpect. Instead it’s fast-paced with some ear-catching drumming and some great, fretboard-burning guitar work. Perhaps because of the higher tone guitar sound, I am reminded of early Metallica and Exodus or maybe Death Angel while at the same time thinking of Annihilator and Megadeth for the technical playing.

Most of the album plays through fast, and drummer Yanic Bercier stands out for his speed and skill. One thing to appreciate are the riffs, which come as deftly-played technical riffs, traditional, melodic bar-chord riffs, and simple speedy, thrash-based riffs. Though most of the lead guitar work is not unique, it is nice to hear a band put as much emphasis on lead playing as Quo Vadis do on this album, as several of the death metal albums I have brought home recently don’t lean toward solos very noticeably. Aside from speed and blisters, Quo Vadis have a prettier side which they exhibit on “Dream” and “Point of No Return: Cadences of Absonance”. There’s a puzzling short instrumental called “Night of the Roses” which seems to be an intro to “I Believe” but is treated as a separate track for some indiscernible reason.

Muscially, the album is extremely well executed; however, a few words must be said about the vocals. Four tracks, “Absolution (Element of the Ensemble III)”, “On the Shores of Ithaka”, and the two “Point of No Return” tracks that conclude the album feature both brutal death metal growls and a second vocal that sounds like deep breaths rasped against the back of the throat. I am sure I have heard this vocal style before, perhaps in the late eighties, and for no better comparison, I think the vocals sound like Dave Mustaine attempting death vocals. Now these songs that feature both vocals are, in my opinion, the best ones on the album because I really like the death growls as the lead vocal with the raspy throat vocal as a secondary vocal style. Unfortunately, the other tracks feature only the latter style of vocals and I’m afraid on their own I don’t think they sound that great. To my ears, it sounds like someone who can’t do death growls but can’t do a thrash shout either is trying to make up a style somewhere in between and it doesn’t impress me. In other reviews I have read though, people say they really like the vocals of Arie Itman. So it’s all a matter of preference really.

All in all, it’s a very solid album musically, and if you don’t mind the vocals then it’s also an album worth checking out.