| The
Review |
Axamenta used to be a black metal outfit that did little
to distinguish itself from the typical black clothing-clad,
makeup wearing, screaming kids. With this album, however,
the band inserts a large amount of prog tendencies that has
grabbed the attention of prog metallers. Another thing that
grabbed the attention of the aforementioned group is the vocal
talents of Daniel Gildenlow from Pain of Salvation, who lends
his voice to this album for an entire song: "Threnody for
an Ending". This is actually what induced me to check these
guys out.
Beware: although Gildenlow appears on this album, the
band sounds NOTHING like Pain of Salvation. The majority of
the album is a mixture of black metal, melodic death metal
(very fast-paced) and a healthy dose of prog sentimentalities.
So what we have here is very heavy stuff with many twists
and turns, segues, TONS of proggy keys (synths, piano, etc.)
and lots of death and black vocals. In fact - the only clean
vocals that appear here are on 3 tracks (one of which is Gildenlow's
song). "Threnody for an Ending" sounds completely like Pain
of Salvation, as one might imagine, and in fact could have
been on "Remedy Lane" or "Perfect Element". It is obviously
the best track here. Being a POS freak - this alone makes
the purchase worthwhile even if I ended up not liking the
rest of the album. Turns out I do, however.
At first I was a little put off by the lack of many clean
vocals on the rest of the album, bu the sheer imaginativeness
of the album led me to give it a chance. The album is a concept
piece divided into 3 parts. It is supposedly about someone
who is forced to travel through time against his will, though
I am still figuring out the concept. Extremely intricate yet
very heavy guitar leads will dizzy you as you listen to this
- but the prog element is never far away with the strings
and piano adding equally complex touches. Drums are typical
of the genre - fast and precise to the point they sound inhuman.
Death vocals mix with the more shrieking black metal type
vocals, and tempos are constantly changing. I am reminded
of a more proggy version of Dark Tranquillity (best example
I could come up with).
For those into the genre - this one will be a no brainer.
A little more clean vocals would have pleased me, but I still
like the album and it is definitely one of those releases
that grows with time and takes many repeated listens to take
it all in.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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