Preview: Abeyance
I have been a huge fan of these guys from 2007 since their debut album, The Frail Tide, was released. There was just something fresh, vibrant and immediate headbanging likability about this band. Be'lakor (a demon from the tabletop game Warhammer) hails from Melbourne, Australia and plays melodic death metal in the vein of Insomnium and Dark Tranquillity, but they have a developed their own unique, progressive sound and it sets them apart from the mass if you ask me. When I first heard about them, I was pretty sure they come from Europe. I was pleasantly surprised learning they come from Australia, cause really didn't know Australian metal scene that well. Later I have hooked up with a couple of Aussies via music network only to find out that the metal scene there is vast, intriguing and of high quality.
Of Breath and Bone consists of eight songs and duration of the album is 56:15. The songs are long, melodic, epic and versatile with many tempo changes, hooks and highlights. I don't know the story why this cover art was chosen, but I know some people don't even listen to the music cause it doesn't have skulls, crosses upside down, blood, black forest or other things usually expected in metal album cover. Don't let that fool you. The music is still what matter at the end of the day. What they master the best is the epic songwriting combined with stellar musicianship, memorable riffs and melodic flow of the songs. My favorite songs are Abeyance, Remnants, Fraught, In Parting and The Dream And The Waking. I could easily name all songs, cause there are no fillers on this album. There is not really much to complain about this album and I have been going back and forth whether this should hold the number 1 position or not. However, I still believe that these guys are capable of creating even better albums, so that is my only excuse to rate this on second position. Then again if you ask me tomorrow, I could have another opinion.
I could go on and on how frustrated I am not seeing them live yet, but then again bringing these guys from all the way from down under to Finland requires much more than a few enthusiastic bloggers. Luckily they are rapidly becoming more popular (however on a metal music scale) among metal community and they have been playing in Middle European Metal festivals in summer 2011 and 2012. I hope to catch them live soon and until that happens I keep spinning their discography, so should you!
No comments:
Post a Comment