DEFIANT IMAGINATION

Since the beginning of the album, we found what we're gonna listen the 40 minutes it lasts. To anybody who doesn't enjoy the most brutal music founded that side of technicity (I've heard much more brutal music, but hardly have technic) they're being afraid of what they're listen, but this is Technical-Progressive-Death-Metal, I'd told you.

On 1st track we have a graet opener for an album of that kind, although at 3:41 we found an outro solo of grat magnitude who demonstrates we are listening to a very capable musicians (especially playing fast).

In the second track we have an absolute amount of the feeling this music provides to the listener, being a rollercoaster of sound who elevates you to that sensation of giving a piggyback, watching the horrors of life this music expresses so well.

On 3rd track we have a great start for a song which emphatises more in feeling, with that soloist lines we found in here. This is one of the best songs I've heard in Metal. It provokes me goosebumps the form we use the ultra-fast guitar rythm and the gutural voice at the end of the track.

The 4th song, "Tunnel Effect", is the fourth part of a saga already classic for Quo Vadis. At that level of the album, I realise the better use of the voice of 2nd vocalist, doing the reply of the main voice. At middle section we found a great rythmic guitar plenty of speed, a great riff I can at very least smile when hearing.

At this point we found in track 5 the same style offered before, a lot of technique at the service of musical aggression. The solo found here is so Schuldiner-ish I realised how much this man did for the style. This one is perhaps the most dense track of the entire album.

For some ear-rest, here in 6th track we found some cello and an operistic opus sang in latin, a filler track who informs the end (of the album) is near. It suits perfectly with the album, being not the first time this group uses cello to complement their wall of sound.

At track 6 we have another technician piece of music, feeling the bass in consonance with that scorching rhythm.

On the 7th cut we found some melodies never heard before in this album. Is one of the most epic song in the album, and we hear the "natural" voice of the singer (yes! he can speak too!), but for little time. Again he uses his shredded voice, combining with the other one. The drumming in the entire album is superb, demonstrating being one of the most sucessful drummers in Death Metal nowadays.

The last track is a beatifully arranged outro song leaving you a feeling that you've listen a complex and beautiful album (in the extreme end feelings of anger and sorrow), being the peak of their discography.

If you like Technical Metal (Death, Atheist) you've gotta love this piece of extreme art. I'm reticent to give 5 stars gratuitously, so I give it 4 stars, whom is the right rate (I think).

I picked up this album because I'm a fan of well-played metal. Saying that, I can recommend this album to those that like bands like Death, but not to people that like more melodic bands like Opeth. It has it's moments but there is nothing on this album that blows me away or makes me want to share it with others. I have listened to the album a number of times and during each listen I couldn't help thinking that there was so much more that this band could offer. They certainly show off that they can play fast (especialy the drummer) but I felt that they certainly didn't do much more than that. I prefer a melodic approach to metal rather than just speed, and rythmn. The drummer certainly needs to learn to lay off the bass drums. If you like hearing 64th notes played on the bass drums for what seems like an eternity, then this is the album for you.

You could compare this band to both Opeth and Meshuggah. They have the occasional melodic sections like Opeth (little to no clean vocals though) and they have the rythmn proficiency (almost) of Meshuggah, but I am more likely to put in an Opeth album because of the melodic variety offered.

I was certainly dissapointed in the length of the album. I picked it up because I saw there were 9 tracks and that should offer a decent length. But the album comes in at just UNDER(!!!) 40 minutes. Just when the album was getting started, it was over.

I am happy to support a Canadian band, being Canadian myself but I just can't recommend this album. I has it's moments but they are just too few and far between.

Defiant Imagination is the third studio album from Canadian technical extreme metal act Quo Vadis. It´s been four years since their last studio album Day Into Night (2000) but in the meantime Quo Vadis released the Passage In Time (2001) compilation album. I have yet to be impressed by Quo Vadis music which I have found promising but not really good on the two previous albums.

The music on Defiant Imagination continues down the same thrashy death metal path as on the two previous albums. They have added a few more melodic elements but that´s about it for progression. As on the two previous albums Defiant Imagination seriously lacks highlights and after listening to the album it´s almost impossible to point out which songs were interesting. It´s not a bad album by any means, but it´s very average/ run of the mill technical thrashy death metal.

The musicianship is excellent an in addition to mentioning the fantastic drummer Yanic Bercier it´s also noteworthy that Steve DiGiorgio ( Sadus, Autopsy, Scariot, Freak Neil Inc., Sebastian Bach & Friends, Artension, Control Denied, Dark Hall, Death, Dragonlord, Funeral, Iced Earth, Suicide Shift, James Murphy, Testament, Vintersorg) plays the bass on the album.

The production is good. Typical clean modern metal production.

After listening to all Quo Vadis albums ( the first three) I´ve come to the conclusion that it´s in the songwriting department that the band lacks the last to become really good. Their songs are simply not very memorable. For a good but very average album I´ll give a 3 star rating. Defiant Imagination is by far the best album out of the first three though and if you want to check out Quo Vadis I suggest that you start here.

If memory serves [it does], a recommendation from an interview Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop) did with Alexander Jones of Undeath (see the video 'These Albums Will Punish You'), Defiant Imagination is the third and final studio album by Canadian Progressive/Technical Death Metal group Quo Vadis. As mentioned in their bio here, significant to this album is the inclusion of bassist Steve DiGiorgio as a session musician. Previously, DiGiorgio had performed and recorded with bands [in chronological order] such as Autopsy, Death (specifically on such important albums as Human and Individual Thought Patterns) and Testament, and later with Sebastian Bach, Christian Muenzner (Obscura, Necrophagist), Soen, and most recently Megadeth (in 2021). I feel I haven't reviewed much Tech Death recently and this was a good one to dip my toes back in.

Defiant Imagination begins off with power on "Silence Calls the Storm", with a relatively melodic approach, the riffs are glancing back. The drums are absolutely ablaze, performed by Yanic Bercier, but then there's the bass! Of course, looking at the bands and projects on which DiGeorgio was a part, it's all making sense. Jazzy, but flying all over the fretboard. I would argue the track is pretty straightforward Death Metal, but then here in the end, as if mimicking seagulls or some other winged thing, Bart Frydrychowicz closes out "Silence" with a guitar solo, met then with bass over a slowed, cleaner outro. "In Contempt" is another fiery inferno [You've been warned: this is the only idiom I can come up with today haha] with a forward drive to keep you going, too. Delicious guitar solo here, but really the whole is very masterfully done already. Much more quick to the punch then the opener.

With a guitar tone that could have even been found in Hard Rock of the late-70s, "Break The Cycle" sways in and out of something sonically totally other within the context of Death Metal. Just very interesting! This tone returns around minute 2 for a delightfully Watchtower-esque section [Ron Jarzombek be praised!] [Apparently Ron's brother Bobby is the current drummer for Country legend George Strait?!... What?!...]. Quirky and rigid, but dark. And then the solo!!! Yaaaaa!!! Mr. Bart is not to be f*cked with! Haha! Best of the bunch thus far. Well balanced as the album has been, "Tunnel Effect (Element of the Ensemble IV)" kicks off with fire. Very interesting choice of dropping out the instruments at one point for solo vocals from their gruff-toned frontman Stephane Pare... It's hard to say whether I'm hearing influence here in vocal style from Hardcore in general, Thrash in particular or something more stylistically 'muddled' like Alt- / Nu-Metal. Or even Industrial? The only real point of interest is what I would consider the instrumental bridge, which frankly is still wildly more complex than I can truly understand haha.

What this band accomplished rhythmically is one of its greatest tools, and hearing the interplay of the entire band, working together for the biggest heft on "To The Bitter End", is a great example of this. If simple rhythms can be spruced up in any way, you might have got me. And here, hard not to praise once more guitarist Frydrychowicz (Fry Dry?!). Regardless, another track with classic Metal riffage. Compositionally, I'm not overly impressed with the whole, though there's a lot that I would personally struggle to accomplish instrumentally (an understatement). Anyways, great track either way [Trying to be cognizant of me and the site standards]. They do kill it.

Up next is the interluding(?) "Articulo Mortis", which features a small string (cello?) ensemble and dark-black chamber-style vocals. What a choice! This runs seamlessly into "Fate's Descent", immediately brutal and heavy. This feels like it has just that little bit more Tech-Death magic we got on the frontend of the album. A guitar solo is then eventually broken up across highly melodic riffs. Pretty epic. Approaching the end, we then get "Dead Man's Diary", with a low and slow rhythm which progressively picks up by way of kickdrum. The bass sounds awesome in the intro, and this feels overall like another challenge for the band, which I think they more than overcame. The guitar here is not mixed balls to the wall, wall-to-wall, so this song has a totally different vibe than the remainder of the album. Interesting, for sure... Not necessarily their strongest suit. Even so, delighted to hear clean guitars once more, all while the double kick is literally on fire haha [Yes, I know what the word 'literally' means, hand on my heart]. This is followed by our sub-minute closer, "Ego Intuo Et Servo Te" (Latin for "I See And Save Thee"), which is another number with strings and those same chamber-esque group vocals, but this time with a really tastefully done sorta string-pluck midi sound. Neat.

Very glad I listened. Its weakest moments certainly didn't sully its strongest.

True Rate: 3.75/5.00