Review Summary: All aboard the riff train.
Known for remixes in the electronic metal scene, and bombastic sets during Russian drum and bass festivals, Zardonic is the natural product of several influences filtering into one, well produced entity.
Picture Combichrist teaming with Pendulum feat. In Flames,
Antihero is exactly the kind of album you’d expect to see, and
Antihero’s general attitude and nature is exactly that; attitude. The riffs are a-plenty, the prominent drum and bass backbone neither relents nor slows its pace for virtually the entirety of the album, and the guitar solos, while lacking finesse at times, are at least cocky and fun to listen to. With track titles such as ‘Pure Power’ and ‘Raise Hell’,
Antihero’s endgame is quite simple; turn the volume up.
While instrumental prologue ‘World At War’ attempts a deceptively dramatic and over the top opening, following track ‘Against All Odds’ offers a far more accurate representation of things to come; all the elements for
Antihero are there, neatly packaged and ready to start smashing your speakers to little tiny pieces, even going so far to kick things off with your standard run-of-the-mill exclamation of
“here we go - are you ready mother***ers”?
‘For Justice’ continues things smoothly with much of the same, guitar squeals galore and a huge wah-infected guitar solo to top things off nicely. Take into account a searing scream-heavy vocal performance, and 'For Justice' easily stands as a fantastic highlight for the album. However, while what’s certainly evident early on is Zardonic’s competent use of crushing guitar riffage, channelling the likes of Richard Z. Kruspe as an appropriate comparison,
Antihero very quickly makes it's greatest strength and (naturally) corresponding weakness simultaneously known.
Everything on this album, from your meatiest riff to your heaviest beat, to finally your flashiest guitar solo, feels and sounds like the result of someone who does things digitally.
Very digitally. And it's a damn shame, because at times it really shows; there's a certain lifeless boredom that creeps into the mix on occasion, especially surrounding the bog-standard electronic drum work that Zardonic so thoroughly employs for much of the album, and moments such as the 'Pure Power's effects drenched guitar solo precariously find themselves toeing the line between badass, to just plain
bad.
Of course, that's not to say that the entirety of
Antihero's track listing suffers too dramatically as a result of this; 'Override's warped distorted vocals compliments the guitar laden track nicely, and 'The Time Is Now's relatively clean tapped guitar solo is both proficiently played, and wouldn't at all be out of place on your standard thrash metal record. As such, much of the album is competently put together, but a certain stale familiarity as you work your way through the track listing can sometimes make itself uncomfortably known.
For much of the album,
Antihero is a relatively simple affair; Zardonic's intention here is to have a good time to a series of drum and bass backing tracks, scream some screams, and play some big fat riffs and solos that would make your average Meshuggah or Periphery fan enthusiastically nod to. This may seem fine, but as a whole the album ultimately falls a little flat at points, and fails to establish a personality beyond the restrictive abilities of the production equipment used to make it.
Antihero may somewhat succeed in the sense that mayhem and destruction are your ideal lifestyle choices, but there are only so many times I can bash my head against a wall before realising that I actually need my deposit back.
