SEDULITY — The Valley of Dying Stars (review)

SEDULITY — The Valley of Dying Stars album cover Album · 2013 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"The Valley of Dying Stars" is the debut full-length studio album by US death/thrash metal act Sedulity. The album was released at a "Name Your Price" tag on the band´s Bandcamp profile in April 2013.

The music on the album is technical/progressive death/thrash metal strongly influenced by latter day Death (the band). The musicianship is strong and especially the snarling raw vocals are delivered with fierce conviction. The tracks feature quite a few tempo changes, death/thrashy riffing, nice melodic soloing and the playing is generally on a high level. The sound production is a bit of an issue if you compare it to professional standards though and it´s especially due to the programmed drums (which are actually very well programmed by vocalist/guitarist Tony C.). The band have obviously used programmed drums in their music due to the lack of a human drummer, and while I fully understand and sympathize with the situation of not having a drummer to play your music, the quality of Sedulity´s music suffers because of the digital sounding drums. It´s a bit of a shame because the songwriting and the way the tracks are performed are convincing enough.

While there certainly is a very strong Death clone factor in the music, Sedulity do branch out and try other things like keyboard solos or the clean vocals in "Seven Cities" and their music is generally slightly more thrashy than the music of those they worship. Despite a few issues "The Valley of Dying Stars" is still a pretty strong album by Sedulity. The sound production drags my rating down a bit but this is still a recommendable release deserving a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating.
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Oh...:-(
adg211288 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Turns out that second album isn't happening now. The band is no more.
adg211288 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Yep, that's where I know that from. :)
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Yeah I read that somewhere...probably on your site :-) I noticed you really liked this one and wanted to give it a try. Not really my poison, and there are a couple of issues like the programmed drums and the bit too obvious Death influence that also bothers me slightly, but other than that it´s a pretty good album.
adg211288 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
There must be a shortages of drummers or something, what with the amount of bands using programmed drums. Their next album, which is already being worked on, is going to have a proper drummer again though (their prior EP actually has real drums).

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