Damn I'm out of ideas for a good introduction to get you all excited for this here review. Well to start off my apologies to a very certain music enthusiast who asked me personally to share my thoughts in the form of this little write up which I have for one reason or another been putting off until tonight. That's not to say I haven't been enjoying
A Disease of Meaning while I've been being lazy because that would be a lie and lies cause cold sores.. Anyway enough of my introductory blabber Zero and Falling have an album out there somewhere and someone has called upon someone to review that album at sometime, the rest is as follows..
Upon the first few casual listens to
A Disease of Meaning I immediately knew this was my sort of thing. Blending metal with a harsh style of progressive caught my attention quick and to throw it out there first (lest we forget)
Scouring the Aftermath is f****** sick. Beginning with the moody picking of single notes and then adding clean guitar to the mix sets a raw yet very chill mood to the track. The song does have some mixed vocals but they aren't the focus as the squeaky guitar play towards the last half really grabs your attention. The 'song' really is more of an instrumental and I begin my focus here because it really shows how talented each musician is and how they can really fabricate a certain mood. The way the guitars play off of each other is simply fantastic and the uplifting tone was something I didn't expect to find on an album that is always on the heavier side. That really is only one track but a perfect one at that and deserving of it's own paragraph.
So where does that leave the rest of the album? Well in the plus, mostly.
Depravity is basically fantastic with brutal hollow sounding drum fill that bring to mind skeleton bones slamming on a kit, probably just me though. The harsh vocals are what you'd expect but in a good way however the clean vocals could definitely use some polishing.
Erelim opens with a very uplifting guitar progression that bleeds in and out of the track very smoothly. The track is as harsh and direct as the majority but when it slows down and the guitars are allowed to be played more soothingly the band really hit the sweet spots. The softer spots are scattered in between the raw disaster like vibe the band generally favor. That's not to say that that vibe isn't as good though.
The Alpha despite having a few vocal issues intertwines the fast paced guitars perfectly with the frantic drumming all the while still retaining a very tight and fast paced feel. The last track on the album
Leeches combines all the best of the bands elements right down to the slower part towards the end of the track. The choppy breakdowns implimented never fail to impress and are always genuinely interesting and well placed througout the tracks.
So in a nutshell we have a blend of harsh progressive metal and the slower sections I'm so fond of even breath hints of post rock. When the vocals are harsh they're good and fitting for the music however they do get a littly shakey during the clean sections but this it never dips into horrid territory. The guitar work is excellent and while not breathtaking there are times when the trade offs are superb particularly when the guitarist lay out the smooth chimes. The drumming is rapid and the bass most likely follows (a nice way of saying "low in the mix"). Like I said before though the slower portions are
where it's at and here's to hoping they progress even more in the future.
Recommended Tracks
Scouring the Aftermath
Leeches
Hero Complex