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Anata - The Conductor's Departure  CD (album) cover

THE CONDUCTOR'S DEPARTURE

Anata

 

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal

3.09 | 20 ratings

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UMUR
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
2 stars "The Conductorīs Departure" is the 4th full-length studio album by Swedish technical death metal act Anata. The album was released through Wicked World (a subsidary to Earache Records) in June 2006.

The music on the album is technical death metal with enough twists and turns to keep even the most experienced fan of the genre busy. The playing on the album is astonishing to say the least. The sound production is powerful and detailed too so that part of the album is well functioning. If you ask me thereīs one major issue with "The Conductorīs Departure" though and itīs a pretty serious issue. The songwriting is patchy. By patchy I mean that the tracks contain multible riffs and sections and tempo- and time signature changes in spades but itīs like thereīs no master plan. The riffs succeed each other in an endless stream without leaving and impact and the tracks generally lack memorability and hooks. After the album ends all I can remember is that the band are extremely well playing and that the album is well produced. I canīt remember any of the tracks. Anata are as such original sounding on "The Conductorīs Departure" (which is something they lacked on their first couple of more generic sounding US influenced death metal releases), but being original doesnīt always mean you are able to deliver something thatīs catchy and enjoyable to listen to.

One of the things that could have worked well is the way Anataīs two guitarists compliment each other. There are almost no unison playing on the album. At all times the two guitars play different things. The problem is that it sometimes sound like the two guitars are playing the riffs from two different tracks at the same time. It sounds very confusing and when you add to that the almost constant tempo- and time signature changes, the soundscape becomes too busy for itīs own good. Weīre talking death metal here and I expect brutality and relentless raw power, but as a consequence of all the twists and turns on this album, the music feel powerless. Add to that a very monotone growling vocal delivery and thereīs just very little thatīs interesting on "The Conductorīs Departure" besides the impressive technical level of the musicianship. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

UMUR | 2/5 |

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