Review Summary: Some of the best melodic death metal in a very long time.
Don't you hate it when a genre just gets overcrowded with the same generic bands, all copying one another hoping for their second in the limelight. Don't you hate it when all of the vocalists in said genre sound the same, all the riffs seem recycled, the song structures similar? And don't you really hate it when the few bands who made the genre unique have now faded into mediocrity? If you haven't guessed it yet, I am talking about one of the most over-crowded, over used and over played genres our day and age. Melodic Death Metal.
Melodic Death Metal. Once you hear a few bands you've heard them all, right? Maybe not, a little known band have restored my faith in this genre to produce some pretty great stuff, complete with their own sound, style, power and exquisite musicianship all round. This band is
Diablo. While most other melodic death bands seem to want to be the next
In Flames or
Dark Tranquility there are few who actually seem to want to be the next big band without doing what has been done before. I honestly do not know how this band hasn't garnered more attention for themselves; comparing them to the hundreds of mediocre bands out there playing this same style
Diablo smash them to pieces, then paint their bodies with the remains.
The album starts off with 'Angel', and starts with a keyboard fade in followed by a thrashy guitar riff. Although it shows what the band do well, it is one of the weaker songs on the album, the clean vocals and death shouts sound a bit like a lot of bands out there, luckily
Diablo manage to pull off something great at around the half way mark, an amazingly catchy and brilliant guitar melody kicks in, followed by the mixed vocals. Now, this is what the band do well, they change their song structures bravely, helping to keep the listener on their toes and makes the album a joy to listen to. Although occasionally it sounds slightly disjointed and messy,
Diablo know how to make a great chorus, and I don't mean a wimpy clean sung catchy chorus to stick in your head. I mean a powerful growled chorus to blow a hole in your head and stay there. Although 'Angel' was a good, if not brilliant opener, the next song really sets the bar for the rest of the songs.
'Icon of Flesh' is a melodic, angry, mournful song that manages to stick in your head through the band's ingenious working of catchy guitar melody's, simple drumming and eerie keyboard work. Also, to put the icing on the blood covered death cake (metaphorically speaking) it has a short but sweet guitar solo in there to mark the climax of the song. If there ever was a good example of how to get the listener's attention early in the album, this is it. Technically, throughout the album they pull of some great riffs, and the drumming is powerful but not overly spectacular. Something which can make or break an album is the guitar solo's, and by the devil below are these boys up to the task. Each one they pull off has emotion and skill just oozing out of it, and thankfully they feature on most of (if not all) the songs. The vocalist has a unique sort of death shout, which compliments his rough clean voice nicely, you can decipher the lyrics without the booklet if you try, and it certainly helps give off a sense of anger and frustration throughout the album. Which leads on to another thing.
The atmosphere. A lot of melodic death bands main problem is that they don't give off enough emotion or atmosphere in their music,
Diablo certainly do. The singer sounds like he is shouting out in anger, the guitarists change up their sound to suit it when he gets louder or quieter, which, while most other bands
try do that exact thing, it never sounds convincing. When the guitarists throw in a unexpected riff in the album, it actually sounds like they are doing it to suit the emotion coming through the singer and the lyrics. Also, the music has a very big thrash influence, which you can hear on some of the more aggressive songs. While the singing and guitarwork on this album is near perfect, the drumming is only above average, simple, but effective. It is by no means bad though, I just think that the band might benefit from giving him a bit more freedom in the songs, instead of just keeping the tempo like here. The bass makes brief appearances, and from what I can hear, is actually pretty impressive, unfortunately the guitars have a tendency to drown it out where it might be able to give them another dimension, so to speak.
Even despite all of these small flaws, this is an album that no self respecting melodic metal fan should miss out on.
Diablo created their own style of melodic death metal here, and they played it pretty much to perfection, recommended for those looking for something a bit fresh in the scene.
