 | Tracklist:
1. Banished
2. A New Darkened Faith
3. Whorror Storm
4. Don't Feed The Heathens
5. Running Out Of Earthly Wealth
6. Feeling Faint
7. Dis Unveiled
8. The Penalty Of The Tyrant
9. Suicide Reign
10. Bound By Heresy
11. Exploitation
12. Behold The Frigid Realm Of Div
Release Date: 06/24/2008 | |
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On 2 Lists
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| Summary: Repetition and lack of creativity plague this album, which results in pretty boring death metal. |
2 of 2 thought this review was well written
So far, Knights of The Abyss gained popularity by having the right connections and signing onto an alright record label. With that, they got more popular by playing music that the absent minded think they want to hear. This band is part of a trend, if anything. Young people listen to what they think is awesome death metal, then wear awesome looking shirts that say “Knights of The Abyss” in illegible writing just to look hardcore.
At a glance, this album will immediately come off as extremely similar to The Black Dahlia Murder. That being said, if you do not like The Black Dahlia Murder, you aren’t likely to be fond of Knights of The Abyss either. Therein lies the problem; this album is quite identical to any other death metal album in its genre, and therefore will bore the listener to near death by bringing nothing new or different to the table. With this album, Knights of the Abyss are implying that they want to fit in with the more popular bands of the genre and maybe become some sort of tag along buddy for tours. Since nothing on the album is really original, it is unlikely that this band will grow any more in popularity.
The real downside of this album is the guitar tracks. The production on them sounds cheap and underdone, while the overall tone sounds just plane sloppy. A clear example of the poor quality is in Suicide Reign from 1:30 to 1:50 where the backing guitar track sounds just plain pathetic. The written material doesn’t bring anything new to the listener, just heavy riffage, with almost each song set in the key of A#, that start with A#. The same notes are played in every song, just in different patterns and rhythms. In the end it just gets so repetitive and uncreative that it becomes boring to the point of tears. The track Running Out Of Earthly Wealth starts out moderately different than the other tracks, but quickly becomes only an attempt at creativity when it progressively falls back into sounding like every other song on the album.
Creativity seems to be the bane of this band, since the vocalist sounds like every other vocalist in the death metal genre. While the low growl sounds pretty okay, the higher pitched shrieks ruin them by doing nothing but making the listener question why they are even in the tracks. The songs Running Out Of Earthly Wealth, Exploitation and The Penalty Of The Tyrant each start out with the vocalist shrieking out high pitched, “YAAAAAAH”, that come off as just completely unnecessary. That leaves the drummer as the one fail safe element that makes this a bearable death metal album. He doesn’t overdo blast beats, and portrays clean hands and feet with quick and tricky rhythms.
With the album clocking at a little over thirty minutes long, an almost obnoxious amount of repetition makes most of the tracks almost completely indistinguishable from one other. Leave this album alone unless you are curious about what not to sound like, if you ever decide to make music.
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Album Rating: 1.5
rewrite of an earlier and not so critical review.
Digging: Owl City - Ocean Eyes | | | Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off
yeah these guys are mediocre and not very original, but they aren't actually 'bad' per se, so i think your rating is perhaps a tad too harsh. good review though.
Digging: Earth - Earth 2 | | |
good review but its definately not as bad as you say... though it doesnt mean that their anything special either.
Digging: After The Sirens - What I Have To Give, Let It Be Enough
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Not to big on these guys. If on this album they were trying to blend in with the current scene, then I suppose they were successful.
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A few good songs on this but its mostly boring. Old stuff was a lot better.
Digging: Rose Funeral - The Resting Sonata
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Pretty good review, but I take issue with this...
"Since nothing on the album is really original, it is unlikely that this band will grow any more in popularity."
Since when did unoriginality stop a band from becoming popular? Hahah
Nonetheless, a solid review.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
I think I was implying that the band is already popular, more or less.
However any growth in popularity beyond this point is doomed, unless the band changes their style of music.
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I was just joking around, by the by.
I also wanted to mention that your first paragraph is extremely poignant. I know hundreds of those kids.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
thanks dude.
That comment you made actually sounded legitimate. So my bad!
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I'm 2 srs sometimes
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yeah this album sucks like a 10 dollar tramp
Digging: Have A Nice Life - Deathconsciousness
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