Review Summary: Technical-Metal where the main technicality is somehow remembering the 4359834 breakdown patterns. If you can listen to this album fully and differentiate the songs, you get a gold star.
Sometimes, you can get a bit of a rush when you put on a song, and hey! It starts out fast paced, crushing, and interesting. That's what I thought when I hit track two on
ABACABB's newest release. And I soon discovered that every other song starts out that way. And the same tempo goes through every song. It's great to have a cool, fast, technical sound, but in this album, that's the only speed they have.
While the Born Of Osiris fans desperately seeking some kind of fix will highly enjoy this album, the rest of us have to wonder, "When the hell did it switch tracks?" Not as in saying it's gapless, but the fact it is all the same! It's incredibly repetitive. The vocals have mainly one pitch, all low-screamed. He rarely goes into highs, but sticks to a guttural low. The guitars have their moments, but it just sounds like endless chugging. Pretty much the only memorable parts of the songs are in the intros, so you can tell the songs apart. The drums are talented, but are chained to the chug-chug-BLAST-BEAT-BLAST-BEAT-chug-chug kind of thing. Bass is... I don't even have to go over that. See 99% of modern metal. They're talented musicians with only the faintest idea how to write a memorable song.
The song structure is mainly heavy chugging verses, no chorus, mediocre breakdowns, and some a bridge. There's alot of breakdowns. Alot. A copious amount. I'm trying to make a point, and the easiest way to put it is: Deathcore. Whether that's a good thing or not is your choice. The drummers use of triplets in the breakdowns spices things up a bit, but when they're in every song, you get no bonus marks. To be completely serious, I can't remember any memorable parts of this album. As musicians, they're great, as song writers, they leave alot to be desired. This album is kind of like a half-time
Beneath the Massacre release in that respect.
In short, this album is good to just pump you up, but only about one song at a time. Keep going, and it just gets endlessly repetitive. It gets a 3 simply for musicianship. If you're into tech-metal, just check out some of Sumerian Records other releases. ABACABB is a new band to their roster, and eventually, their musicianship will evolve and I have a feeling they'll make something great. If they drop their vocalist, of course.
