Tonight's offering is Poland 's
Preludium and their fourth album Redemption released by Transcending Obscurity from India
What is on the altar to night is a mixed bag of black and death metal,
with a modern flair. These guys being Polish, the obvious comparison is of
course Behemoth. And from the little
I have heard of Behemoth I would
think that this comparison is spot on. I would like to call this Behemoths dirty sibling, they are
similar but not twins. And Preludium
has a way dirtier sound, and that is what I like about them.
The music consists of a lot of fast parts, the drummer gets a real work
out, but a lot of nice head banning friendly parts as well. The double bass
playing is almost constant, this dude must have some serious ADHD issues, but
then again drumming is a good way to get out that excess energy. I think it is
very cool that the tempo goes up and down a lot, always keeping you guessing.
These guys really like to throw in some interesting stuff from time to time. On
the second track Altars of Redemption
we get a little break with just bass, drums and some ambient noises. This is a great build up and spooky as hell I
must add. The riff that comes after is a beast, this is a perfectly crafted
part, the build-up is just magic. On the third song we are treated to another
really neat little thing, it is around the 3 min mark the guitars slows down
with a little disharmonic thing and the drummer just goes nuts with the blast
beats. I think it is little things like this that makes this album stick out. I
mean these guys are not re-inventing the style but they are keeping it
interesting.
Another band that comes to mind is Belphegor,
Preludium have the same uncanny
ability to create really creepy atmospheres. And like Belphegor, Preludium
likes to add some eastern sounding melodies. So yeah there is a boat load of
tremolo picking riffs and minor chord and power chord chugging. I really dig
these guys use of disharmonics, this gives the album a real sinister feel. Ok
all black metal albums have a sinister feel, I would think that I'm not too out
of reach by stating that this is an essential part of an black metal album. But
when using disharmonics and not only minor key riffs the music gets an even
more sinister feel.
The lead work on Redemption
is really tasty, nothing over the top or to "showy" I would like to
call it elegant, and really fitting the songs. The leads never feel out of
place or there just for the sake of them. I really like how the leads sounds
like integrated parts of the songs and not something there just to get ticked
off.
Earlier in this review I called this album dirty, and what I mean with
that is the production. The production is not bad, just kind of raw for an
album releases in 2013. In
my opinion this is not a bad thing, since I’m very tired of the super slick
digital sounding recordings. That being said, the dominating factor on the
soundscape is the drums, unfortunately they are overpowering at times. This is
not really a deal breaker, but it is unfortunate since many of the riffs are
killer and at times they get lost. The bass drum is way too loud in my opinion.
But hey can you ever get too much bass drum, well maybe.
So all in all we have a pretty killer album in Redemption, if you like the Polish or Austrian black/death metal
war machines this will be right up you ally!
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1.Soul Torment
2.Altars of Redemption
3.Incarnations
4.Root of Suffering
5.Circle of Life
6.The Seven Gates of Hell
7.Destiny of Mortals
8.Arena of Souls
9.Hatred Breeds Suffering
10.Sins of Mankind
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transcendingobscurity.bandcamp
Sweden`s Wilhelm Lindh*, "Portuguese by adoption," guitar player, composer and owner of the Doom / Death Metal band The Gardnerz, reviews here in HeavyHardMetalmania.net. Careful and professional analysis to the music and albums with suggestions of what there is to see and hear ... not to be missed. "The wisdom is found in the extremes, all extreme Metal here!".
