Review Summary: +Good vocals
+Amazing guitar work
+Origional drumming
+Auidable bass
-Overused break downs
When I originally was reffered by a friend to listen to Point Below Zero he origionally discribed them as having the same sound as Rings Of Saturn, which is one of my favorite tech-metal bands. Eventually I got around to listening to their recently released EP. What I heard blew my expectations out of the watter. The young Australian band Point below zero has created an intense sound that has the tightness of tech-metal, the intense low growels from death metal, shireking highs that all most remind me of black metal, and the brutal breakdowns of death core.
The guitar work in this short seven song EP sounds as if it were from a very experienced signed band. From the intense arpegios to the heart stopping break down the guitars sound very professional. One aspect that made me very happy with this album is that you for the most part can actually hear the bass guitar. To most that may seem like a small aspect, but from a death metal bassists prospective it gives me true joy to finally hear good quality bass parts in a death core band. towards the end of Dangermazz (the last song of the album) at the 3:54 mark for a good half of a minuet there is an intense bass arpegio that gave me great joy listening to. I must admit, when the bass arpegios started... my jaw dropped and I came.
The drums are very tight on the album, never being too flashy but having more than enough variety in every song to make them enjoyable. The fills are absolutely amazing over the course of the album so to drummer Nic Tresise kudos to you.
The vocal work in this album is rather unique. The vocalists lows are very powerful and his highs are
just nasty(in a good way). The only complaint that I had on the vocals of this album is not really as much of a complaint as it is a suggestion. I know with how many different vocal styles that there are this may be impossible in the vocalists style but, some diction would be nice. With lyrical content as free flowing as the lyrics on this album some diction would help from having to look up the lyrics to every song in the album.
Although as a whole I really enjoyed this EP there were some small things that rubbed me the wrong way over the course of the album. first off the sample in the begining of The war of the mind (third track) was funny at most when I first listened to the album the whole way through, but now every time I hear "When will i be famous" I actually get very annoyed. Next annoyance was the sheer ammount of breakdowns over the short twenty six minuet long EP. This is somthing that pluages the genre of death core all though it isn't to the point of lets say *cough *carnifex *cough, the breakdowns can come across as a filler instead of an intense moment in the song.
Overall I loved this album and, Point Below Zero is now one of my favorite bands.
