| Glass Casket Desperate Man's Diary |
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 | Tracklist:
1. Phenomenon
2. Too Scared To Live
3. Genesis
4. Less Like Human
5. A Cork Stops The Whining
6. Post Traumatic Death
7. I Slept
8. The Redeemer
9. Name Above All Names
Release Date: 2006 | Ranking: #124 for 2006 | |
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4 of 4 thought this review was well written
Given the non-stop touring and frequent roster changeup of North Carolina-based death-dealers Glass Casket, not to mention questions of how to progress from their last full-length We Are Gathered Here Today..., a new album does not conjure up a great deal of promise even from rampant fans of this sort of music, myself included. The way I saw it, there were only so many directions this album could go. For instance, the big song off of their last album was "In Between The Sheets", which in all likelihood was due to the melodic break, reminiscent of their fellow NC act Between The Buried And Me's "Mordecai"; would this album be rife with melodic breaks, the bassist singing, the ideas played out? The last album was also very much its own beast; it was a complete idea and clearly focused, and another album that sounds just like it would simply not work. Or perhaps even the new guitarist Ian Tuten wouldn't live up to expectations, or drummer Blake Richardson and lead guitarist Dustie Warring would be short on new ideas given their extended period with Between The Buried And Me. Even to me, this album seemed like a dead end, and I was cheering for the band to stay together the whole time.
Well, after hearing Desperate Man's Diary, their new album, I can honestly say that I am beyond pleasantly surprised, because this album surpasses their last quite easily, even though it is a good ten minutes shorter, and casts all my doubts aside. To put it simply, these guys are amazing. This is simply one of the best hybrid metal albums I've heard in years; what little I can find wrong with it is not near enough to warrant not listening to it. Let's start with the negatives then: the first song is pretty but is essentially a lead-in filler track, and the last is a sort of trite spoken word thing (but it's short enough and it's the last track, so it's not a big deal in the slightest). There, that's out of the way. I'll continue and explain what it is that's so great about this album.
This is predominantly death metal/metalcore (deathcore if you'd like to coin an especially annoying term yourself) from a death metal/metalcore act. Both death metal and metalcore have their fair share of unbelievably contrived bands who have nothing to offer the music world. Not Glass Casket. While this album does share the typical traits of "death metal" and "metalcore" on occasion, this really just is metal to the very center; there's grind, technical metal, some weird offbeat yelling passages, hell, there's even stuff I'd dare to call black metal-inspired. Most metal acts wouldn't dare combine all these different metal breeds into one sound, but these guys do it effortlessly all over this record.
The first track lures you in and then you're hit in the face by "Too Scared To Live", the best song on the album hands-down. It is a perfect summation of the album: it starts with death metal note trills, runs into chugging metalcore passages, pounds into doomy sludgy areas, smacks you with some sweeping lines (and tasteful sweeping at that; this isn't a Darkest Hour album), a downright pretty solo that ends in pure mathiness, and then an utterly massive breakdown atop vocalist Adam Cody's pleading rasps of "Stuck kicking nickels for a dime a dozen a day". It is the perfect introduction to a perfect conglomeration of ideas and effortless genre-switching; this is the song that defines the album by a mile.
Oh, and I mentioned solos. There is a solo in all but the two bookends I mentioned at the start, meaning one in every main song. Is this important? To be honest, I don't care whether a metal act wants to solo in every song (though the wankier acts make me cringe); these solos, however, are all over the map. The solo in the afore-mentioned "Too Scared Too Live" and the one in "Genesis" are really just pretty little things, nothing jaw-dropping but definitely appropriate. The solos in the other songs run the gamut; the one in "Less Like Human" starts out reminding me off Slayer and ends by making me debate whether a computer can devise guitar lines (that's a good thing in this case). There were maybe two solos on We Are Gathered Here Today... and I didn't mind; here I look forward to hearing them in every song, since they make everything just as eclectic as the shifts from chugging to harmonized trilling and blastbeats.
The roster changeups have done nothing to stem the band's progress, either; every single member amazes you at some point or another. Cody's voice is my idea of the perfect metal screamer/growler: he has incredible range and knows how to make it exactly as effective as it can be at any given moment. Dustie and Ian's strength doesn't lay solely in their ability to shred/sweep but in their amazing versatility; either can harmonize a riff in any number of ways, chug impossible changeups in odd time sigs, play tasteful metal solos, and of course, pound your brains in. Blake is, as always, insane, and any metal act would be immensely proud to implement his skills, Between The Buried And me and Glass Casket included. And Sid Menon outdoes himself not only by playing some interesting metal bass lines (especially the break in "A Cork Stops The Whining"), but also by not giving into temptation and having another singing break on any of the songs I here. Not that I hate Sid's voice, I like it, but it shows restraint that they don't fall back on a tired formula to make things viable.
So the lesson learned here is that you shouldn't expect anything from a band based on their construction. Despite all the setbacks this band faced, they have triumphed with this record; it has its flaws and is only thirty-odd minutes long and yet still surpasses their last and arguably most other recent metal works in complexity and sheer brutality. Desperate Man's Diary is decidedly Glass Casket's best yet and should rightfully secure their place as the leaders on the forefront of modern metal. Is that probable, or even possible? At this point, I don't really know what to expect anymore.
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Album Rating: 4
Good Review, I'll check this out.
I heard 1 song from this album somewhere, I wasn't too amazed by it, but I'll give it another chance.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
"Too Scared To Live" is on their myspace and purevolume, but I can't stream it on here due to flash and no download links.
http://www.myspace.com/glasscasket
http://www.purevolume.com/glasscasket
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Good review and great album.
This Message Edited On 06.15.06
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Yeah, these guys, much like BtBAM, are bloody awesome.
Digging: A Forest of Stars - The Corpse of Rebirth | | |
Brilliant review. Glass Casket are one of the many bands in the "tech death" genre along with The Red Chord and BtBAM that combine a lot of genres together to fuse something fresh and exciting - excellent genre and great band. I want this badly.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Neither of those bands are Tech-Death, Glass Casket is no different. They're three bands that mix death, tech, metal, grind and hardcore influences, but aren't exactly any of those in a specific sense.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Glass Casket is clearly more death metal/metalcore then anything else. They're eclectic but those are their two main genres.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Yeah, I know, I just meant in relation to all three bands. My point is that they're not tech-death.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
When I think technical metal I think bands like Dillinger Escape Plan and PsyOpus. So yeah, I agree.
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Quick question. I know that these guys share a vein with Between The Buried And Me, however, do they have soft/uplifting parts in their music along with the aggression? For instance, the ending to "In Between The Sheets" from their other release. I'm wondering not because I despise the heaviness it's because I adore the way they use those uplifting/soft parts to accomodate the heaviness. If anyone can answer this as quick as possible and tell me how many songs on this album have them, I'd really appreciate it as I may be picking this up today after work. Thank you and great review of the album!
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
The solos are usually pretty melodic. Aside from that, no, every song on here is not a rehash of "In Between The Sheets" and "Mordecai".
To be quite honest, I think if you listen to bands like Between The Buried And Me and Glass Casket just for that sort of thing you should just stop listening, because both are mostly just death metal and should be appreciated as such. The best songs by both groups don't even need "melodic" parts to work.
Aside from that, I recommend you get the album regardless.This Message Edited On 06.16.06
| | | Album Rating: 4
So I got the album, and I pretty much love it.
I'm listening to it now, I recommend this album to everyone
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Hmmm looking back now I would say that bands like Glass Casket, BtBAM, The Red Chord - it's kind of just eclectic metal lol I thought PsyOpus was just insane grind...:s
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SubtleDagger - what bands would you classify as "tech death"... or am I just being a genre nazi and a typical nOOb waiting to be assraped.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I haven't heard any "tech death" specifically, like I said, the tech metal stuff is what I'm familiar with and that's stuff like PsyOpus, Dillinger, Orthrelm, Behold... The Arctopus, stuff like that.
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I loved their last album, I guess I'd better pick this up soon. On the other hand, I've gotten really bored with metal lately and while this might change my mind, I don't know how much of a priority it's going to be.
| | | Album Rating: 4
I don't know how to pigeion hole this album. I know most people on here are genre crazy, but its rough to try and identify these guys with something as simple as a genre.
Simply put though, this album shreds even more than 'We Are Gathered Here Today'. Im an Aussie and I had this album on pre-order for three months and was checking the mail every day for the last month seeing if the CD had arrived.
Now I've got it, I can't say I'm the slightest bit dissapointed. This is every bit as brilliant as the cousins BTBAM's best work.
Terrific.
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I'm going to have to get this.
Is there a song that destroys "A Grey AM You'll Never See"?
That is a song and a half.
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I was gonna check these guys out due to their connection to BtBaM, I'll get a hold of this album then.
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Great review, I really don't like the band though.
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