(Below we present Wil Cifer‘s review of the new comeback album from Atlanta-based Dååth, which will be released by Metal Blade on May 3rd.)
After a decade-long hiatus bands often return to a musical landscape that has shifted. With metal, the stakes are higher. Headbangers are like addicts who build a tolerance requiring an ever-increasing level of sonic stimulus to get the same results. This leaves musicians with the choice of either cashing in on nostalgia or trying to find their place in the new musical climate. Producer/ guitarist Eyal Levi finds a balance between the two with Dååth‘s new album. Levi might be the sole original member, but he brought long-time growling machine Sean Z along for the ride. Sean’s multitracked performance lends to this album’s massive sound.
Photo by Stephanie Cabral
The bulk of the credit goes to the addition of Jesse Zuretti, who handled the orchestration, synths, and some additional guitar. Obscura guitarist Rafael Trujillo was also added to the guitar fold on this album. This is a very guitar-centric album that features a best-of collection of guest guitar soloists, with modern metal guitarists ranging from Ice Nine Kills to Archspire. If you are into guitar solos, that’s great, but rather than chart out the wanking, I am going to stick to the things that matter when it comes to songwriting, like hooks and dynamics.
The first two songs play to the strengths Levi has showcased over the years by using grooves to display their technical prowess, rather than having their chops as the focal point. This album is more progressive and technical than past releases. They are aware of how metal has changed in their absence, and temper what might appeal to fans of today’s progressive or technical death metal, yet continue to incorporate catchier, more groove-oriented songs like “The Silent Foray”. It also marks the second time on this album I notice Sean dropping from a growl into a more spoken section that drips with effects. This is effective in creating nuanced sonic colors.
Some of the symphonic sections bring to mind Dimmu Borgir in their melodic scope, but this album has minimal black metal influence. They have employed synths and electronic elements in the past, this album just takes them to a more cinematic place. “Purified By Vengence” almost reaches back to the kind of grooves that infected their first album. This also makes it one of the album’s strongest songs, in the symmetry of hooky riffs and the virtuosic spectacle the new lineup leans toward.
“Deserving the Grave” splits the difference between the two polarities this album is pulled toward and should appeal to the wider spectrum of metalheads. The waltzing melody that haunts the background is what kept me engaged. While for the bulk of this review, I have not mentioned guitar solos, the one at the end of “Deserving the Grave” is hard to ignore, and if you are going to play a metal solo then that is the way to do it.
The last song is pummeling enough, and all the sounds captured here are well-executed; it is however not the hookiest song of the album, as the vocals feel like they could be a more crucial element of the song. But the guitar heroics balance things out, where this might go unnoticed, if not given the scrutiny of repeat listens.
The album provides an excellent return for the band that settles into their place in the metal landscape, as an impressive and logical next step in Levi‘s creative vision given his classical pedigree. Fans of the band should rejoice as it will live up to expectations. There is an entire generation of young teenage metalheads who were not old enough for the band’s last album, so time will tell how this album sits with that demographic.
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