CRYSTALIC - Watch Us Deteriorate |
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9 songs |
What a pleasant surprise! A less than inviting cover artwork was probably the reason why this CD was lying for such a long time on my to-be-reviewed heap before my bad conscience finally made me have a listen to it. Finnish band Crystalic offers on its debut full length album melodic progressive death metal, possibly a long description for their genre, but it couldn’t be more fitting. Already the opener Blackened Image gaps the bridge between the accessibility of Scandinavian death metal and the technical complexity of American East Coast sound. The late Chuck Schuldiner and his pioneering genre bands Death and Control Denied are as much influence as contemporary power thrash bands like Nevermore. Fortunately Crystalic always remain in their melodic territory, which is emphasised by the virtuoso guitars. Another aspect which sets them apart from most death metal bands is their fretless bass player who delivers already on the opener a little jazzy solo. While none of this hasn’t been done before by other bands, Crystalic nonetheless prove an incredible maturity on their debut album. Watch Us Deteriorate is a finely produced death metal album which may not even be forty minutes long, but the nine featured songs are concise examples of how to combine to different schools of thought and come out with an excellent death metal album. |