Review Summary: Children Of Bodom playing REAL melo death
2 of 2 thought this review was well writtenThe controversy over whether Children Of Bodom plays melodic death metal or power metal leads to many arguments in the metal community. But listening to Inearthed’s demo,
Ubiquitos Absence Of Remission, it is clear where their roots lie. Back in 1995 they were a melodic death metal band, and not a bad one either.
Listening to this demo, it is hard to tell this is the same band that would go on to become Children Of Bodom. Only very minor similarities are found between both bands.
The happy power metal guitar melodies are nowhere to be found. In their place are heavier, lower sounding guitar melodies layered over a rather simplistic but effective rhythm section. The songs are essentially guitar driven, following the weaving pattern of the melodies being laid out by the guitarists. A few clean passages are thrown into two songs (
Translucent Image and
Possessed) that complement the distorted leads nicely and throw in a new type of sound that was never explored by Children Of Bodom. The passages are always short but never sound forced or out of place. For example, in
Possessed one of these passages is used as a background for the first half of a solo. This guitar switch in the middle of the solo is perfectly executed with the lead guitar following the change and making the whole thing sound epic.
The quick keyboards also are not present leaving place to a more ambient style that focuses on holding the note of the key the guitars are playing in. It does not bring much to the sound and is easily forgettable considering most of the time it has to be listened for to be heard.
The vocals on the album are what will be most shocking for anyone that is only used to listening to Children Of Bodom. It is a combination of mid ranged screams similar to those featured on
Something Wild (mostly used in the song
Shamed) and low death growls. The death growls have that cookie monster quality to them and are somewhat reminiscent of a less guttural version of the singer from Arghoslent. They fit the style and are executed surprisingly well by Laiho (who until hearing this I thought could only do mid ranged screams).
So is Inearthed better than Children Of Bodom? This could be debated but I do not think it should since it would almost be like compairing two completely different bands even though the members are the same. Both have their own set of qualities and their own style of metal.
Inearthed has managed to create a very enjoyable demo and I am honestly surprised it took them so long to get label attention. They show great technical ability in their respective instruments and songwriting skills that easily top the newer material Children Of Bodom has released.
Final rating: 3.75
SCREAM!
