OK so I was listening to this album again last night, and I have to say, it really grew on me quite exponentially. First of all, the big difference this time round was listening to it carefully on headphones. The intricate nature of the album is quite remarkable, and a real standout feature is that *almost* every lead break is doubled with an accompanying harmony. Beautiful guitar work.
The music is much more than derivative melo-death, thankfully. It's too technically superior, it sounds inspired like they went into the studio and said, 'right, if we're going to do this, let's do it properly and just pretend that everything since Slaughter of the Soul didn't exist', heh.
Personally, I could do with the album playing at mid-pace more often (I think that's when Arsis are at their best), and the vocals seem unfortunately 'blaah'. If there is anything I find hard to digest with this style of music is that you get this awesome drumming, fantastic guitar work (melodies, breaks, and riffs), and then the vocals are slightly plain and monotonous. This is where a band like Into Eternity really takes it to the next level - they don't resort to one set of vocals. With music this dynamic, it would be nice to hear the same effor put towards the vocals.
But hey, on third listen, I will probably appreciate this even more, but if anyone is interested in this, I'd suggest checking out the latest Into Eternity too. I'm not saying they're identical, but fans of one might appreciate the other...just a thought.
