Review Summary: Very good, but misses originality
The Zenith Passage is not a very known band, but it has a great potential, writing technical songs and creating a very powerful extraterrestrial atmosphere in them.
Cosmic Dissonance is a great album, recommended to fans of Technical Death Metal, Deathcore and Aliencore (for those who consider it a genre). The only thing that is missing in this album is a more distinctive sound. When you listen to it, you could easily think you are listening to The Faceless. The musical part is slightly different, and the vocals are almost the same. Drop-tuned guitars playing fast and technically, 5-strings bass playing fast and doing tapping, use of double pedal and fast-playing drums... this could be original so far, but what makes this record almost identical to an album made by The Faceless are the vocals. The vocals are of the same kind, very quick growls and screams, and clean vocals once in a while. Even the song structure and the lyrics are very similar. They're not the same, they have a slightly different sound, but they should work on it and make it more original.
The songs:
"Capricious" is basically an introduction to the rest of the album. Begins with a dark atmosphere made by distorted guitars doing dissonant chords, followed by fifth-chords that give the rhythm, double pedal and a synthesiser that gives some kind of alien ambiance. After a small solo and a calm interlude, starts the part where the singing starts. With low chords and a tremolo lead the vocalist screams -I am the Chaos within the universe-, -Burn the Earth-, etc.
It's not bad at all, actually it's a great way to start the album, but it's like a rip-off from Planetary Duality's "Prison Born". The song ends by fading out.
Right away the same sound that faded out fades in, and thus begins "Kaleidoscopic Tendencies", a song full of very fast and technical riffs, and those quick growled vocals. The guitar solo shows great talent from the lead guitarist, and he also shows to have a special style. I would say this solo is proof that there are distinctive things that this band should work out. The rest of the song structure is very similar; double pedal, bended artificial harmonics, etc. The song ends with the same sound that started it.
The next song is "Cosmic Dissonance", and as you would expect from the song with the same title as the album, it's very good, though it gives the same feeling of Alien Ambient, this one gets a special sound, more original, and also has clean vocals in some parts. Fast breakdowns, technicality is everywhere in this song, and the way it ends with synthesisers and voices speaking of aliens gives an idea of just how amazing the next song is.
"Xenith", by far the most technical song of this album. Nothing to say except, dissonant chords, irregular scale running, tapped bass notes coming out of nowhere. It's an excellent song and has a more distinctive sound. Never forgetting about the alien atmosphere, and the fast and technical solos, consisting on tapping, arpeggios and tremolo. In the end the guitar fades out and the synth ends the song with a dark strange sound.
The last song is "Tombs Of Trepidation", and starts very powerful and with a very complex tapping in the guitar.
The rest of the song is very similar to the other songs, but has some feeling of this is the end. Good guitar solo. The song ends with the vocalist screaming -tombs, tombs, tombs of trepidation- and a dark synth that fades out.
It is an interesting record, and is very good to listen to it uninterruptedly, a bit repetitive in the structure, but it's fine in the end. The potential of this band is amazing and after listening to it probably you'll want to hear more from this band. Once they reach their own sound it's very likely that they become big in the Technical Death Metal scene.
