FALLUJAH

Fallujah have changed their style a lot over the years, starting out a technical deathcore act and later shifting to an atmospheric technical/progressive death metal style, and "Undying Light" sees Fallujah changing things again. With Palermo on board the vocal style is now fully fledged aggressive metalcore screaming, and there are no traces of the band's deathcore/death metal past in the vocals anymore. While the music still features heavy riffs and rhythms, there is also very little in the instrumental department of the album which reveal Fallujah's deathcore/death metal beginnings. The music is now best described as atmospheric metalcore with heavy angular riffs. The only trace of death metal is the melodic death metal riff featured on "Sanctuary".

The band are well playing and the sound production is clear, professional, and detailed, so on most parameters "Undying Light" is a quality release. The songwriting is very generic though. There's nothing on this album you haven't heard before, and unfortunately also heard better. Some of Fallujah's past releases have been pretty intriguing combinations of atmosphere and heaviness, but this time around the band haven't managed to produce enough memorable riffs and vocal hooks for the material to stick. Upon conclusion "Undying Light" isn't a terrible release, but it's not a particularly remarkable one either. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

The music is both simple and difficult to describe. Basically, it is heavy modern metal with aggressive blast beats, heavy guitar played both with speed and slower ponderous chords played at non-standard intervals in a bar. "Ba- downg, downg... downg... downg, downg-ba-downg..." There are more technical parts too which do help to add interest to the performance. The vocals are that bellowing/roaring/growling style more commonly known as death vocals or death growl. It often sounds to me more like Beelzebub is trying to talk through a hurricane. There is, however, another factor to the music and this is what sealed the deal for me, so to speak. There is a lead guitar that either wails hauntingly over the aggressiveness of the rest of the band or it plays lead-like melodies of great dexterity. Okay, the guitar doesn't play it; let's give credit to Scott Carstairs or Brian James, the band's two guitarists, though I'm not certain who takes the lead if not both.

Describing the music further, the rhythm guitar seems to follow one of two approaches: either a thrash-like attack on a chord or variations on a finger configuration based on a chord. My friend and I used to do this on our guitars back in the nineties. We'd play a standard bar chord but remove the finger of the lowest string alternately, occasionally using that finger to bend the string, all the while never changing the position of the other fingers. It sounded really heavy and cool but in those days we didn't think that was a real riff and nobody would ever think to create a song around that playing style anyway. Well, in actuality it might not be as simple as I've described it but it still sounds cool. And these days, lots of people are doing this it seems. So basically we have much of the band going for full-on aggressive metal with those roaring vocals. But this other guitar really adds a layer of beauty that is quite ear-catching. I don't know if this is a new trend among metal bands but it's the first I've heard it. There are also moments where the intensity is dropped and clean, delayed guitar notes and chords add a new dimension. There's also a song or two that feature soaring, aethereal female vocals which really adds a wonderful contrast, and one song that actually includes a more normal-sounding male vocal contribution.

There are two things to say in critic of the album. The first is that I find the roaring vocals too prevalent. A little more of non-death vocal style would have given the beautiful and haunting lead guitar parts more purpose. The songs with the female vocals sound the best in this way because they complement the higher guitar part while the gruff death vocals go with the aggressive rhythm guitar. And hey, if you're going to take the time to write lyrics then why not be sure that they are at least to some degree discernable. I mean, near the end of one song, all I can make out is, "STRAAWWW. QUAALM!" Actually, I think this is the song "Scar Queen".

The other point is that all but two tracks follow a similar formula. Yes, checking out any one song or two makes this album seem like a treasure of audio delights. But as I listened to the album the other morning while out walking and my thoughts became distracted, when I returned my attention to the music after a few minutes I felt I hadn't missed anything. But I have to consider that this is the band's third album and in many cases, it is the third album where the band have really found out where they want to be and some of the most highly rated albums in rock history have been the third album.

Two tracks are entirely different and they are "Fidelio" which features some simple but pretty piano with supporting music and a dialogue between a woman and a man about a dream she had (the album is entitled "Dreamless" remember?) and how now that she is awake she is back in reality. The other track is "Les Silences" which is more of an atmospheric electronic piece with drum programming and a man's voice speaking in French. It is a rather intriguing track because it works very well and it delivers a distraction from the formula that comprises the 10 other tracks.

For a listen, you can find some songs on YouTube, and I think I would recommend "The Void Alone" because it includes the lyrics and the female vocals. I think it's a pretty good album for adding some variety to my collection and largely for the combination of that ultra-aggressive style and that sometimes soaring, sometimes technical lead guitar. But in some ways I also find myself thinking that I still love the artwork more than I actually enjoy the music on the whole album. The cover just seems to promise more than what is actually present. Or perhaps just less bellow roaring would have improved my overall impression.

That trend continues on "Dreamless", which features a core sound that is best described as technical/progressive death metal with great focus on atmosphere. The deathcore influences are not completely forgotten either, and this is contemporary technical/progressive death metal rather than the 90s version of the style. The music on the album alternates between technical death metal parts and atmospheric progressive metal parts. The music is dense and layered and there is no rest throughout the 12 track, 56:14 minutes long album. Even the more mellow atmospheric sections feature many layers of instruments and vocals. When that is said, the music is still very dynamic and the contrast between heavy loud sections and the more low volume atmospheric sections works well. The vocals are predominantly unintelligible growling although there are some tracks which feature female choirs and one track which features male clean vocals. The growling vocals are of the type which get the job done, but not much more. They are to my ears emotionless and one-dimensional and they don´t bring anything extra to the music. They are just there.

The instrumental part of the music is technically well played, and especially drummer Andrew Baird deserves a mention for his adventurous and powerful playing style, but the many well played guitar solos and epic atmospheres that the band build, are also worth mentioning among the album´s assets. The compositions are well written too, but "Dreamless" is not an album where individual tracks stand out (except for a few ambient styled tracks), and after listening to the album, it´s not many tracks that I´m able to remember. More spins of course do the trick (at least to a degree), but the tracks are generally not memorable enough and don´t feature enough hooks. The material could have prospered from a bit room to breathe and slightly more variation between tracks, and the multilayered sound production also feels a bit overwhelming at times.

So upon conclusion "Dreamless" is to my ears a bit of a mixed bag (just as the case has been with it´s predecessors). The sound production is powerful, clear, and detailed. Obviously created by professionals (Zach Ohren, Mark Lewis, and Fallujah), and although I think the material lacks hooks, it´s objectively seen/heard also very well composed, and add to that high level musicianship, and you have what I would normally label a high quality release. Personally I´m just missing a bit of soul/bite. It´s all so slick, progressive, and polished, that you almost forget that this is actually extreme metal in some form. I miss rawness and aggression. When that is said a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is still deserved.

The music on "Nomadic" pretty much continues the sci-fi themed technical/progressive metal style of "The Harvest Wombs (2011)". Fallujah are still pretty unique sounding within the genre because of how they combine technical/progressive death metal parts with atmospheric (at times ambient) synth heavy parts. The technical level of playing is high, the sound production clear and powerful, and the songwriting is strong too.

"Nomadic" features 3 tracks and a full playing time of 18:11 minutes. "The Dead Sea" and "Venom Upon the Blade", which bookend the EP, are both in the style described above while "Silent" is an atmospheric ambient track. The whole thing reeks of sci-fi atmosphere, which is a type of mood Fallujah are really successful in creating. My issues with the vocals on "The Harvest Wombs (2011)", which I felt were slightly generic, have been solved. This time around the growls are convincing and intelligible. The higher pitched screams also work to great effect.

Overall "Nomadic" shows development of the band´s sound and the promise I heard on "The Harvest Wombs (2011)", is even more apparent here. A full-length release of this quality and I think the band will have fullfilled that promise. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

The band play a sci-fi themed type of technical death metal/deathcore. The deep growling vocals are at times paired with higher pitched raspy ones. The vocals are a bit generic to my ears or if I play nice I´d say they are pretty standard for the genre. They get the job done but not much more than that. The music alternates between brutal technical death metal parts and blasting (for the most part) atmospheric parts. The musicianship is on a very high level and I´m especially impressed by the well played semi- jazzy guitar soli, that somewhat remind me of Cynic´s ditto, and also the innovative technical drumming. Fallujah are generally much more brutal then an act like Cynic and it´s more contemporary artists like Vale of Pnath, Obscura, Augury and Beyond Creation that come to mind, while listening to "The Harvest Wombs".

The material on the 10 track, 44:05 minutes long album is of high quality all the way through the playing time. "The Harvest Wombs" is in addition to the "regular" technical death metal/deathcore tracks, spiced up with two rather intriguing instrumentals in "The Flame Surreal" and "The Harvest Wombs", which are both great for the variation of the album.

The sound production is clear and powerful, which suits the material well. The drums might be a bit too high in the mix and there´s little here that you can call organic, but other than that "The Harvest Wombs" is a very well produced album, and upon conclusion it´s certainly a promising debut album. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

And that tendency continues on "The Flesh Prevails" which features high class technical/progressive death metal. Fallujah always had a deathcore edge to their music because of the shouting type growling vocals and the start/stop type heavy riffing, but they are predominantly a death metal act. The deathcore elements are also featured on "The Flesh Prevails" though. Other than those elements the music features technical precision drumming and ditto riffing, multible tempo changes, atmospheric sections with clean guitar textures, and semi-jazzy guitar solos, that remind me slighly of "Focus (1993)"-era Cynic.

The band are incredibly well playing and obviously very skilled, which is a great asset when playing this type of music, but on the other hand it´s not like technical playing alone is going to amaze that many listeners in this day and age. Thankfully Fallujah are also pretty skilled composers and the material on "The Flesh Prevails" are well written, brutal, intriguing, and relatively catchy. The whole thing is packed in a clear, detailed, and very powerful sound production, that should please fans of the genre. No old school aestethics here.

Fallujah have taken a step forward with "The Flesh Prevails" and it´s obvious they´ve given the direction of their music a lot of thought. The atmospheric part of their music which is one of the features that makes their music stand out among other artists playing this style of music, is still a major part of their sound, but they balance it off well with brutality and fast technical playing, and end up with a pretty intriguing style. If I have to mention a minor issue it would be that the vocals are pretty generic sounding. They get the job done, but there´s little here that distinguishes them from the growling vocals by other contemporary death metal acts. A more distint sounding and less monotone/one-dimensional vocal style would really have done the trick and lifted the quality of "The Flesh Prevails" to an even higher level, but as it is a 4 star (80%) rating is still deserved.