Review Summary: Epic melodic death metal harmonies, oldschool metalcore breakdowns.
More-so than any oldschool metalcore release, would I consider this a precurser to the modern sound of bands like Through The Eyes Of The Dead, As Blood Runs Black, and Conducting From The Grave. On
The Tragedy, Prayer For Cleansing has completely honed their sound, and, *gasp*, the production doesn't suck. Even the bass is audible. The only unfortunate aspect is that it's only three tracks... which is no biggie because it's all executed perfectly.
This has every cliche that's used in modern metalcore and deathcore, but so much less predictably and well done. The first track, "The Closet" starts out with an intro that has been ripped off by any number of southern bands, be it Tell Her I Said Goodbye or The Damascus Intervention, you can see where they drew their influence. But the song takes a darker twist than most Gothenburg influenced bands in the scene, almost a black metal tinge that you can hear in Glass Casket as well. There's even slam breakdowns, but not too slow, and not out of nowhere, the song has perfect transitions, great drumming, even during slow parts, and well, Dave Anthem's vocals are a lot stronger than on
Rain In Endless Fall.
Track two, "When The Sun Kisses The Morning" is probably my favorite melodic death metal influenced metal song, ever. The riffs are just epic. Perfect harmonization, perfect switches from slower to fast tempo. The breakdown in the middle is extremely moshable. And repeated at the end... the transition into it is very reminiscent of what Through The Eyes Of The Dead work into the outro of "Autumn Tint Of Gold."
And the final track of the album, an odd interpretation of "Salvation" by The Cranberries. It somehow works, I guess it's the punky undertones. The clean chorus is a nice surprise. I just find it really funny that Anthem is screaming over this song, but it's really fun.
So pros:
Awesome vocals - raw, high rasps, decent, sparing, lows
Awesome guitars - lots of variation between riff structures and tempos
Audible bass (lol metal)
Awesome drums - dude can play well with the varied sound.
Con:
Lyrics
