THE HINDERERS

I have been subjected to a few very disappointing experiences with extreme-prog metal lately. Bands that can't play it slower or can't play a single melody or that can't come up with an original idea, and bands that seem to adore this terrible "whatever-core" style of screaming and shouting, have made me lose faith in a genre that has given me plenty of great musical moments.

But finally I've found something that, while still extreme and pretty noisy, has all those elements I was missing from many other bands. Atlanta's DAATH is a true example of pushing the music to the limits without pushing it entirely out of bounds.

The first thing I noticed about the sound of this album, "The Hinderers", is how the synthesizers are actually an integral part of the band's extreme sound. DAATH plays a singular style of progressive death-metal with industrial elements and the keyboards are not just a gimmick or a background- enhancement-tool as in many other groups. In DAATH, the keys add to the actual metal effect, helping the guitars in building the wall of sound instead of just being used only for chords behind the main riffs. The keys collaborate with the guitars in the riff department from time to time, when they're not being played with industrial-mechanized effects. All of this adds a distinct flavor to the music. It sounds heavy, extreme, but also modern.

The vocals here are ever changing. Clean singing isn't to be found here, and most of the time what we have is a hybrid of death metal's classical low-pitched growling with black metal's typical high-pitched vocals. The voice kind of fluctuates between the two, going up and down depending on the needs of the music. It doesn't feel like a gimmick, but even better (especially for me), it adds something to the music. It's not brutal screaming for the sake of screaming. It's not anger; it's just another integral element of the music.

The album's songs are short and concise, but never feel devoid of ideas like in other bands. The length of the tracks doesn't come from the speed at what they're played or from how much the performers want to show-off their skills, but from the actual needs of every composition. The structures are never too complicated, and when all that had to be said has been said, it's over. Time to start another song.

The music has melody, for a change. And very atmospheric. At moments it has strong influences from the Swedish school of death metal, especially from the more melodic bands like SOILWORK or DARK TRANQUILITY. At the same time, there are influences from the brutal death metal scene, and I heard some hints of NILE in these songs, with some oriental/Egyptian/Hebrew-style riffs here and there, something which maybe shouldn't surprise us as the band's name itself comes from the Hebrew language, and also as it has been said that the members take a lot of influences from Da'at and Kabbalah. The music has also a very deep industrial influence as mentioned before, bordering in electronica for just a few moments in the album.

The musicianship is top-notch. I've discussed the singer and the keys already, but the rest of the band members also help drive this opus home. The album has three drummers and, it's safe to say, all of them are very skilled, playing a very similar style, with emphasis in the double bass drums, though that doesn't mean they don't have to time to more delicate drumming, like in the opening of "Who Will Take The Blame?" The guitars are very technical, also, and, unlike other extreme albums of late, have room here to express melodic ideas and even to solo every now and then.

All in all, an excellent sophomore release by DAATH, a band that shows extreme potential to create even better music. As of right now, it's one of the better technical-death-prog-metal albums I've heard this year, and I recommend it very strongly to fans of the genre.