I can say that I've listened to my fair share of what most like to call death metal—some I've liked, some I could have done without. And while I believe that Cannibal Corpse and Napalm Death have far outlived their shelf-lives, I still get excited about a new Obituary album. ... »»
While perhaps not quite at the level of Opeth or Dream Theater, Dir en grey is Japan's answer to the aforementioned bands, proving it with a solid decade-long career and this, their seventh studio album. ... »»
First and foremost, the director is a maniac. There's constant cutting from camera to camera, which makes sense during, say, the strobes during Overkill's set. But it's almost constant for the whole show, so you can never focus on anything ("Well, there's the guitarist... no, the bassist... no, the drummer... no, the singer... the audience... the singer..." and so on). Then, they discover split-screen technology somewhere in the middle of Megadeth's set, and we then get that feature being used ad nauseum. ... »»
Byzantine - Oblivion Beckons
Prosthetic Records (01/22/08)
Metal
In a bittersweet turn of events, up-and-coming potential metal legends Byzantine greeted 2008 with probably the best album of their short career, and then abruptly broke up before the thing even hit the shelves.
North America's response to European prog-metal masters Opeth, the band just seemed to be gaining momentum. With Oblivion Beckons, every aspect of Byzantine's sound has been ratcheted up a notch (or ten)—the riffs are thicker and more complex, the drumming more frenetic, the bass meatier and the vocals either grittier, more horrific or melodically haunting.
Opening with "Absolute Horizon", the band just tears into fifth gear from the get-go. Starting off with some Morse code, the beeps build like a sense of paranoia before a couple of guitar chords break the hypnotic tone. And then a guttural howl from OJ Ojeda explodes the track into a metallic juggernaut, with machine-gun drumming and breakneck riffs.
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