Chuck Schuldiner Project

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Deathember-Going Postal


A lot of modern bands are jumping on the djent wave. Their sounds are becoming very polished and in many cases downright bland. Few bands seek to rip the genre apart and go for the juggular with distorted rhythms and extremely grating vocals. Deathembers custom sound is the result of a fusion of the music of Sikth with some groovier acts like Gojira or SYL, all while maintaining the technicality that is the trademark of all of those bands. The Meshuggah inspired sound found on Going Postal shows this group to be more than imitators but true heavy metal innovators.

The most notable part about this record is the layered guitar work. While one guitar carries out the standard percussive Meshuggah like riffing their is frequently soloing going on underneath the vocal lines. This idea helps to add a layer of abstract melody to the pieces and keeps the music slightly grounded and a bit easier to grasp than most Sikth tracks. In brief, the strange and destructive power of riffs on songs like Let us Flip show off the musical might of the band while simultaneously introducing interesting melodies that are not often found in this style of progressive music. Another example of this group annihilating boudnaries can be found on the track The Deprivation which starts off with a standard prog intro before going into heavier metal madness.

In conclusion, Going Postal is a prog masterpiece. It shows a Swedish band who are ready to join the ranks of the prog gods. They certainly have enough technical skill and songwriting ability to dominate. The truly notable thing though is that Deathember has managed to sound like an evolved form of bands like Sikth and Meshuggah. They have taken that trademark sound to a new level and it's not very djenty at all. Going Postal is a 10 song slab of prog perfection and I can not wait to see where Deathember take their wonderful sound next.

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/Deathemberband

No comments:

Post a Comment