It’s the 90’s again, and melodic death metal is rapidly evolving in all directions, yet most of the bands just wanted to copy Arch Enemy and In Flames. At The Gates is about to die out, Dark Tranquillity released The Gallery, and Opeth was at their debut. The ultimate glory days of the genre have come and gone, but for some reason a recent resurgence has been undertaken. Bands like Insomnium, The Absence, and Scar Symmetry have tried to reclaim the aura of those days, sometimes succeeding and usually not, but at least they’re trying a little. Degradead may as well be a cover band.
Jesper Stromblad, after producing the band’s debut Til Death To Us Part, hailed this band as “the future of metal”. If this is any indication of how out of touch with the planet Jesper is, then we know this band shouldn’t have been signed in the first place. They bring retro-style riffs a la Sonic Syndicate, most evident in songs such as Depths of Darkness and Future Is Now. The choruses are even closely akin to SS, sometimes comparable to Soilwork in that they never fail from utilizing harsh vocals in the verse and “epic” clean lines in the choruses. The single, Wake The Storm, rips off bands in sequence. An Arch Enemy intro, Hypocrisy main riff, Sonic Syndicate verses, Soilwork choruses, and a Bullet For My Valentine solo to really spice things up. The reason for the constant comparisons is because, truly, there is nothing unique to pinpoint, and it’s hard to listen to this and think this band is anything close to the future of any sort of metal; even insipid is taking it lightly.
Unlike a few of the recent melo-death bands, Degradead uses the nigh-lost art of acoustic interludes within songs. This is a case of doing the wrong thing for the right reason. Surely people would enjoy a comeback of this technique if it could be individualized, hell even a proper tribute, but sadly there’s nothing here but the rehashed ideas of old. The harsh vocals alone are weak enough to ruin the mood, but these acts of repetition throughout the album’s song structures are starting to become beyond irritable, and this goes for any new band in the genre. Literally, the only redemption this record has to offer is the track Illusion, and even then the enjoyment is sporadically short-lived.
It almost seems too harsh the way this album comes across here, but sometimes tough love will get people somewhere. Degradead is good at what they do, but playing cliché melo-death does not earn you a worthwhile fan-base nowadays. There’s nothing else to say about it. Degradead is 10 years too late.
