| |
|
|
Review Summary: Middle Finger Metal for the masses The Defiled are a known quantity if you have any interest in modern British metal music. Their delicate blend of industrial metal, metalcore and groove metal earned them many plaudits among the British music press (being hailed as one of the champions of British metal by both Kerrang! and Metal Hammer) and since their inception in 2005, they’ve grown to become one of the biggest bands in the UK underground scene with relentless touring and 2 acclaimed released (2009’s “1888 EP” and 2011’s “Grave Times”), despite being unsigned. Early in 2013, though, after a fan funded recording session for their sophomore effort the group found themselves joining the swelling ranks of Nuclear Blast and now find themselves a platform to grow on an international level. With “Daggers” being the first chance to show the world what they’re made of, The Defiled do not disappoint.
The metalcore and groove influences are slightly less apparent on this album than on their debut album, with the most obvious –core tracks being the singles (and opening tracks), “Sleeper” and “Unspoken”, and “As I Drown”. After this, however, we see the group taking more standard industrial influences while attempting to carve out their own sound which has built on their previous releases. This attempt is somewhat successful, as the album is packed with tight musicianship and big choruses (see “Unspoken”, “Fragments of Hope” and “The Infected” for examples), although there are times when the group somewhat wears its influences on its sleeve (“Porcelain” could easily be seen as a Marilyn Manson track if Manson were still any good). The guitars tend to carry on with their general industrial strength chugging on this album but this is hardly a problem as the electronics sitting in the background tend to provide much needed depth to the songs and make sure there is always something going on in the music. The AvD’s contributions do sometimes end up coming to the fore and carry the song along though, with “Porcelain” and slow burner “Five Minutes” letting the electronic elements have some air to breathe and show what they bring to the table.
The problems with this album are few but still noticeable. The drumming from new guy Needles doesn’t exactly bring anything to the band (even though it’s a nice (and very much welcome) change to have a live drummer on the recordings as opposed to the programming used on “Grave Times”) while Stitch D’s clean vocals can feel a little bit flat at times (see “New Approach”), and there isn’t really that much variety to the music overall. However, the music is still very enjoyable and Jason Suecof’s production job really brings each member’s contributions enough clarity to make sure they’re noticed without jumbling up the sound.
Overall this album is a nice progression from a promising debut and is sure to help the quintet win new fans oversees as they set off touring outside the UK for the first time. Sure there’s nothing really new here but it’s a good modern industrial album which you don’t see as much of these days - it will appeal to younger fans while keeping the majority of older metal fans happy. It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here now they have a big label’s backing behind them.
Album picks:
Unspoken
Saints and Sinners
Fragments of Hope
The Infected
|
Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off
Stream http://smarturl.it/DaggersAlbumStream
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Yeah, this album is leaps and bounds better than their debut.
Good review. Pos.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
This is really good mate pos'd, being British myself I've been following these guys for ages now and I love how well they're doing it's well deserved. I'm glad that you also like While She Sleeps another great band who I must see live at some point, in fact the British scene as a whole is so promising lately.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
This band, to me, are doing what Motionless in White are trying to do, but way better. Nice to hear they're moving away from the core stuff though.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I will check this hard asap. Liked Grave Times a lot, that album showed so much potential.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
This band are obviously heading for bigger and brighter things. 'Daggers' continues their mish-mash of insane industial sounds mixed in with some moderately heavy (and sometimes thrashy) metal. However, this time round, the songs are shorter and snappier, and it seems that the band are opting for even more crowd-pleasing tunes than a more drawn-out structure in the same vein as 'In the land of fools'. The problem here though is that the instrumentation (the keyboards/synthesisers as an exception) doesn't quite get as much room to 'breathe' as it did on the band's debut album, and so it's really down to the mixture of aggressive screams and sometimes weak clean vocals to provide the entertainment. It's actually a good album, most of the songs proving quite catchy and accessible enough to win the band an even larger fan-base than the present.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Well, that was nice, linguistic. Cheers
Tonight i listen to this and read the review!
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
A lot better than the debut, man. I thought the debut was pure shit, this pretty good.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I actually liked the debut a lot, this on the other hand, upon a first listen, not so.. haha go figure!
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
It isn't. Doubt you'd like it though, do you know their other album?
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Hahaha, makes a lot of sense.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I actually liked the debut a lot, this on the other hand, upon a first listen, not so.. haha go figure!
haha! Typical! Oh well, guess it's just one of them shifts in sound.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Haha. Will go through it a few times though, these guys' music really stick with me.
As for the review, you nailed it Philip. You really got the essence of the album, and make solid points about the band's direction on this. Also feels like you packed a great deal of info on it, without making it feel too long.
Going up to the forums to suggest a feat!
| | | Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off
New Approach is probably the only fairly weak track on this album imo. Most of it is pretty damn good and most of New Approach is alright but the cleans just don't seem to work on this track and the chorus just grates me. Probably should've expanded on that more in the review but I felt I would've ended up on a tangent by complaining about that one track.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
You did well Philip not going for that one little thing!
| | | Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off
I've just realised 5 minutes kinda reminds me of Nebel by Rammstein.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I can't justify having this as a 3 anymore for one song. haha I find the album as a whole pretty repetitive.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Indeed friend
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I tried, but you were on the money all along Moreira
| | | Band broke up, and nothing of value was really lost.
| | |
|
| |