Recommended: Painters of the Tempest (Part II) : Triptych Lux
Another successful album from Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris – most of the tracks on this album are long but nice journeys into varying music; from soft to as harsh-as-can-be. It’s a well enjoyable Prog Death Metal album, with more work on all instruments than their previous album (do give the previous album “Portal of I” a listen to get an idea about this). This one has more soft parts and specifically really soft vocal lines but again pulling some great work of fusing lead violin with Death Metal. Here is the entire album for streaming:
For fans of: Progressive Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal.
Sarah’s Top Release of November 2014
Primordial – Where Greater Men Have Fallen
Recommended: Come The Flood, Wield Lightning To Split The Sun.
So much of music these days is just plain, catchy for the first couple of plays and then fades out against the ever-expanding realm of mediocre musical expression. And even under the rare occasion you do come across something with a little more depth, it’s usually chopped up into easily digestible pieces because we are the generation of instant gratification, we don’t want to work through the experience of music, we merely want it to sound good, and it better sound good within the first 5 seconds. And this album does, but Primordial retains its reputation as a band that really doesn’t give a fuck about being ‘easily digestible’ or catchy. They always provide something more than cleverly orchestrated noise; they give you an entire world. Where Greater Men Have Fallen is not something you play in the car, or as background music while studying or anything arbitrary like that, you need to sit down and look this album in the eyes and give it the time it deserves to truly feel the depths of its suffocating beauty.
Where Greater Men Have Fallen sounds a lot like signature Primordial, which is incredible news for uneasy diehard fans afraid of change, however it definitely treads into darker and heavier territory that Primordial hasn’t plunged into before. This album is fraught with emotion and crushingly dark atmosphere but A.A. Nemtheanga’s infinitely expressive vocals are what makes this album really stand out. This man has the power to take you back 100 years, to the battle fields of the first World War, into the homes of the victims of war and make you feel every iota of grief, the beauty of loss and the numbness of hopelessness. One of my favorite aspects of the album are the unmistakable (doomed-out) Irish melodies you can hear on several of the tracks, namely Born To Night which, I think, gives the songs a very authentic, cultured feel.
