UNDER A STONE WITH NO INSCRIPTION

This is the first Anata record I listened to, and let me say I´m not that impressed with the music. Technical Death Metal with lots of solos and tempo and time signature changes. It even pretty melodic for the genre. A typical sign that this band is from Sweden. The problem is I feel the music sounds forced and awkward, and I´m not too impressed with the vocal perfomance either.

What does impress me though is the musicians and what they play. This genre is so insanely technical that these musicians must have practised their asses off to pull something like this out their sleeve. It doesn´t amount to anything in the end though as I feel all the technical finesse overshadows the songs so much that the power is lost. Power is the driving force in metal, and without power you´re nothing. I´m sure Anata would be a really cool band if they toned their technical side down and focused more on power. This doesn´t mean they can´t still be a technical Death Metal band, I just feel they need to be more subtle.