Review : Zealotry - The Last Witness by MetalWani

Via MetalWani : "Zealotry is a Death Metal band from Boston, Massachusetts. I first caught wind of the band in 2013 with their excellent debut album, The Charnel Expanse. The album was dark, beckoning, and above all well sculpted. Resultantly, the album became one of my favorites of that year. With the announcement of a new album for last year, I was terribly excited as I waited for this album’s release. With its release date pushed back to April of 2016, ‘The Last Witness’ quickly became one of my most anticipated releases of this year. Now that the album is finally released, Zealotry has exceeded all my expectations and delivered a phenomenal album that will remain as one of the best metal has to offer this year. Oddly enough, the new album is released on Lavadome Productions, the label which released my favorite metal album of 2015.

Zealotry consists of its main man Roman Temin on guitar and vocals, Philippe Tougas (Chthe’ilist, First Fragment, Sercos) on guitar, and the newcomer Alex Zalatan on drums. The spectacular trio is joined by the session bassist (and cellist) Aodán Collins with two guest musicians Tommy Purnill (Avalon Steel) and Xavier Berthiaume (Gevurah) providing additional vocals. Unlike their first album, ‘The Last Witness’ takes a similar but different approach to Death Metal. The new album bolsters a well-crafted sound that is equally technical, aggressive, and experimental. The best way to describe the style on the new album is Progressive/Technical Death Metal that takes cues from bands like Gorguts, Immolation, Ulcerate, and Chthe’illist among other influences. The level of exploration in songwriting and abstract musical ideas is very well fleshed out and forces the listener to go beyond the generic tropes of Death Metal and easy listening, in favor of a more thought provoking album that demands multiple listens for an appreciative understanding. This album is a sci-fi monolith, based on the works by renowned British writer Arthur C. Clarke, that is not afraid to explore more complex musical ideologies in Death Metal and does it strikingly well.

The album starts off with the track “Arc of Eradication”, a hefty track that immediately establishes the overall tone and atmosphere of this album. The band here does not mess around with their music. With the strong-winded compacted chords and the thick guitar tone, this track hits the listener hard. The core of the band’s music is immediately established, the relationship between the guitars and bass. This track and the following track “Heralding the Black Apostle” showcases some of the best compositional skills the band has. The varied riffing, disjointed melodies, and condensed atmosphere brings out the best of the dual guitars. Temin and Tougas bounce off each other in almost a dance like fashion as their parts interchange and roar during their solos. The bass adds a warmed color to the the texture as the bass gets woven into the music providing valuable harmonic detail and sometimes counterpoint to the dichotomy of the guitarists. The music stays fresh with the various nuances the band adds and takes away as the album plays itself out.

“Progeny Omega” is the centerpiece of this album as well as being the longest track off the record. The track first starts off with a calm intro that reels the listener into a lengthy Death Metal epic filled with contorted riffs, excellent use of synths, and choral vocals provided by Purnill. Each of the individual instruments come together nicely on this track, almost in a cascade like pattern, that almost seems out of place but oddly fits within the context of the album. Similarities can be drawn on this track to the new Chthe’ilist album Le Dernier Crépuscule as the band transitions its focus into more of a melodic and atmospheric approach that adds a different face or side to the music. Though it’s long and not as vigorous as the tracks before it, this track demonstrates the band’s ability to shift gears into something that’s more long run minded and reserved as a stylistic necessity. The guitars have more phrasing in mind while the Zalatan’s drumming fills the space beneath the musical progression. The synths and choral voice adds a nice touch to liven up the sound more which works very well with what the track is going for.

The next two tracks “Yliaster” and “The Last Witness” demonstrate another side of the band. On these two tracks, Zealotry is not afraid to tone things down and slow down. These tracks feature the doomiest sections of the album, especially on “The Last Witness”. Even when the band slows itself down, the intensity still remains and the atmosphere of the music does not suffer from it. I would say these two tracks are the “darkest” sounding off the album and resembles the tonalities of The Charnel Expanse the most. Though the guitar work may not match the same ferocity presented in the first three tracks of the album, the band is still able to provide just enough vigor to balance and fuse with lusher sides of the music.

The final track “Silence” is my personal favorite of the album. The track starts off with an intense acoustic guitar intro played by Tougas that I would say is one of the best acoustic intros in any metal album. You can hear the strings vibrate, the pressure placed on the strings while they are picked, and the twine-like twists of the sound, yet the intro is equally melodic and oddly relaxing. When the band kicks in while the acoustic guitar sings out its final cadence chords (around the 1:03 mark) is my favorite moment of the album. The band hits you with just the right amount of intensity that it does not overwhelm you but fill you with an emotive outcry. The rest of the track, similar to to “Progeny Omega” showcases the more melodic and long run minded vision as the synths return accompanied by Collins’ cello playing, the bells, and Berthiaume’s additional vocals. Temin’s vocals shine on this track, not for it’s intensity or deep sound, but for it’s contribution to the overall sound of the track. With the mid-tempo guitars floating over the bass and drums (along with the bells and synths) creating a misty soundscape, the quieter and rounder vocals are complimented as they work together to form the mellower feel of this track. The track ends as the band fades out into the the lone acoustic guitar to close off the album.

The pacing on this album is quite good as the band naturally plays around with the musical ideas, balance, and tempo. However, I would have liked to see more usage of the cello, synths, and acoustic guitar (the outro of “Silence” could have been longer and more impactful). A little stronger bass presence which would help highlight the counterpoint Collins provides, and a slightly more spaced out organization that morphs between melody (a little more melody would help bring more character and individual flavor), dissonant intensity, and the lush atmosphere. ‘The Last Witness’ showcases exactly why Zealotry made waves in the underground Death Metal community back in 2013. With their new album the band has taken steps forward in various directions to create an album that is built on similar principles but was not afraid to push itself to new heights. As a result the album became a huge success as the band has outdone themselves compositionally, stylistically, and dynamically to create an unique abstract album that joins the ranks of the Avant-Garde Black and Death Metal crowd of the recent years. Hat’s off to you Roman, Phill, and Alex. With that being said, this is an album that thrives on patience and reflection. Take that for what you will. Prokofiev anyone?

Zealotry returns with an outstanding sophomore album that openly embraces experimentation and uses it to their advantage to create a monstrous album of high level craftsmanship and mastery in composition, sound, and atmospheric energy. With this album, Zealotry has no doubt solidified its place as one of the most exciting modern Death Metal bands of this time and serves as a powerhouse that would help drive the creative forefront of modern Death Metal. Keep watch, there will be many great things to come from this band."

9.5/10

Originally written by Yidu Sun for MetalWani.com

Review : First Fragment - Dasein by HeavyBlogIsHeavy

Via Heavy Blog Is Heavy : "What’s it about French Canada that causes them to have excellent tech death bands? First Fragment is yet another one in the string of such bands, and they definitely live up to the stereotype. Their debut album Dasein, five years in the making, was anticipated quite a bit by those who had listened to their excellent EP The Afterthought Ecstasy. Playing in the lines of greats like Gorod, Beyond Creation and Beneath the Massacre, the band’s debut album is an instant classic. Full of over the top melodic technical playing, Dasein is a joy to listen through and through.

What makes a great tech death album? Is it how fast they play? How over the top the riffing is, how ridiculous the drumming is? Well, yes, but not entirely. What makes a great tech death album is the same thing that makes a great album of any genre. Good songwriting. And coincidentally, that’s what First Fragment are pretty great at. The tools of their trade are in practice pretty simple. Delicious grooves a la Gorod play a pretty big part in their sound. Similar to the French masters (whose former drummer happens to have joined First Fragment after Dasein’s recording), they use dissonant and melodic riffs to add character to what would otherwise be ridiculously fast songs. Combining the guitar-intensive approach of Beyond Creation (First Fragment songs have more instrumental sections than vocals for the most part) and blazing speed of BTM, the band at times sound like a “best of” of the genre.

That’s not to say that they sound derivative. So many bands in the genre focus on being overly complex with their writing that there is a level of simplicity that is often glossed over. Combining and streamlining the core aspects of what defines a style is sometimes a fresh take. Going back to the basics and building a sound up from that works very well in Dasein. Blast beats, riffing that is complex yet appreciable and prominent bass playing are the tools mainly employed here. They spice up the sound from time to time, with the flamenco intro to “L’entité”, the classical guitar piece “Prélude En Sol Dièse Mineur” – there’s quite a bit of variety here.

But the riffs. The riffs are the real highlight here. Every moment is ridiculously memorable, going from soaring leads, delicious melodic lines, smooth tapping duels, stupidly fast trem picking to grooves that are unstoppably bounce-worthy. A typical criticism of tech death is that it can devolve into a garbled mess of overplaying, with nothing to latch onto. That’s not the case here, as the band have expertly crafted transitions and buildup-release dynamics in order to make every song have an unstoppable momentum. Coupled with the perfectly crisp production, the album is overall flawlessly executed.

Dasein is an album that could easily be pointed at as an archetypal technical death metal album. Basically a love letter to the genre, it’s infectiously memorable and groovy. Fans of the genre can find much to appreciate here, and it would serve as an excellent starting point for those looking to delve deeper as well. First Fragment have knocked it out of the park with their debut album, and shown yet again that there is something special about French Canada that leads to excellent tech death that is a must-listen." 4.5/5

Originally written by Noyan Tokgozoglu for HeavyBlogIsHeavy

Review : First Fragment - Dasein by TeethOfTheDivine

Via Teeth Of The Divine : "Unique Leader looks to be having the same sort of outlandishly good year as it had in 2014 with the likes of  Ohmnihilty,  Inherit Disease, Ahtme,  Omaphagia, and The Zenith Passage so far, and then you have the upcoming monster from Katalepsy still yet to come. But I’m pretty confident in stating that this will be my favorite UL release this year.

Canada’s First Fragment have been around since 2008 but only release a few demos and an EP in 2008, but know that they have featured in their line up, Phillip Boucher of Beyond Creation as well as Troy Fullerton of Severed Savior ( who recorded drums for this release) as well as current drummer Samuel Santiago formerly of Gorod. So you know the drums are top notch. Oh yeah.. Heard of a guy called Philippe Tougas? Ya know, the Canadian Dan Swano who once played in Vengeful and now also plays in Serocs, Chthe’ilist and Zealotry? Well he plays lead guitar here and it’s not what you’d expect considering his out put this year of more murky cavernous death metal.

First Fragment is super noodly tech death. Arpeggio, sweep filled melodic tech death. On steroids. Imagine if Obscura and Origin had a baby and Gorod was the surrogate…. and Herman Li of Dragonforce was a godparent…. and that baby was injected with a direct shot of pure epinephrine. Seriously, this is some really, outrageously  over the top stuff, but not just purely clinical and soulless stuff. The Gorod influence is responsible for some really playful, full on neo-classically inspired melodies and leads, Lots of leads. If you don’t like a little fun in your death metal, don’t get this.

Obviously, the skill level of the players here is pretty well unmatched with years of Canadian tech death experience behind them, but what makes this stand out is the song writing that matches the skill with overwhelming shreddage that never lets up and delivers some truly memorable moments. yeah its self indulgent, yeah it’s virtually one hour long solo, but its soooooooooo fucking good. And its not just the guitars, the drums are on points and the powerful vocals (all in French) of original vocalist David Pilon are perfectly brutal but complimentary.

Where do I start? The space/cosmic themed ( I think…certainly not as obvious and laden with sci fi atmospherics  as The Zenith Passage) Dasein  (‘Design’) simply does not let up. It makes label mates The Zenith Passage or even Archspire and the new Vale of Pnath look like stoner doom. Even the instrumentals are full force;  “L’Entite” is a full on Flamenco laced, tech death salsa party and so called  ‘mellow’ number “Prélude en sol dièse mineur” is a finger shredding acoustic number that would get Paco De Lucia’s seal of approval. . So imagine what the other 9 ‘real’ songs are like? Well,standout  opener “Le serment de Tsion” is pretty well the template, coming out of the gate with a dervish like intensity and featuring a very cool little swing/jaunt at the 1;46  mark that is an early show of the band’s skill and more playful delivery (and reminding me of Gorods “Rejoice the Soul”). The title track starts with yet more whimsy, but soon explodes into a completely insane  vortex of tech death and a nifty bass solo.

“Émergence” follows “L’Entite” with a real throttler, this isn’t just alien, skillful and mischievous , it’s FAST as well. There are no slow songs, maybe a few little swings and jazzy bridges scattered in the loooooooong segments of shreddage (i.e. “Mordêtre Et Dénaissance”), but “Archétype” is the only track that any real sign of respite. My other favorite, “Gula” delivers some jaw dropping harmonies, some nice fretless bass twangs, some unique drum patterns  and yet another cool little Gorod -ian  swing/waltz bridge to the fray, making for a literally dizzylingly staggering track. “Voracité (Apothéose, Partie 1 and Partie 2 )” deliver two tracks- one a longer number with a neat little tango to close and a shorter, 2 minute relentless shred fest. as ig you need further incentive or idea what this sounds like,  Dasein also features guest appearances from current and former members of Spawn Of Possession, Obscura, Inferi, Augury, and Elderoth. so there’s that as well.

At 56 minutes long the album should be exhausting, but its not  and I’m grinning from ear to ear for the entire time, and often shaking my head in disbelief at the same time. Especially with a fucking 11 minute closer “Evhron”, which surprisingly is only about 3 minutes of atmospheric intro and closeout amid the finger cramping chaos. The crisp productions and almost continual arpeggios will annoy some, especially those used to Tougas’s other projects so far this year. And what a year he has having- but I’m certain this will be my favorite release he is involved with in 2016 as well one of my very favorite releases of the year."

Originally written by Erik T for Teethofthedivine.com