The Amenta - Flesh Is Heir (10/07/2013)
Originally forming as Crucible of Agony Sydney's The Amenta formed an incredible sixteen years ago yet in that time have managed to release just two albums prior to their new one titled Flesh Is Heir. The album is the first to feature vocalist Cain Cressall who joined the band in 2009.
The opening track, which is also titled Flesh Is Heir, kicks off with a heavy guitar riff from guitarist Ethion (Erik Miehs) before the rest of the band kicks into a very blackened sort of death metal sound. The music is great, the problem however is the vocals. They are almost unidentifiable being pushed right to the back of the mix and being lost amongst the heavily distorted guitar and drums which really takes a lot away from the song itself and really doesn't kick the album off to the greatest of starts. Having never listened to the band before this it may be a usual thing but it doesn't seem as bad on the rest of the album.
Teeth shows off the strength of Cressall's vocals really well. Going from deep growls to high screams he really has quite a vocal range and it makes it one of the better tracks on the album.
A Womb's Tone is a haunting instrumental track that would fit well into most horror movies before Obliterate's Prayer is a decent extreme metal track but does fall a bit into the category of the opening song with the vocals being lost against the music again which is unfortunate.
The album ends with the track Tabula Rasa which, musically, is brilliant. The guitar work especially is great, across the whole album it is in fact, but overall the song isn't anything spectacular.
Most of this album sounds far too similar and what started out with a bit of promise, unfortunately, became quite boring. Fans of this genre will probably lap this up but other than that don't bother.
Matt Barton
The opening track, which is also titled Flesh Is Heir, kicks off with a heavy guitar riff from guitarist Ethion (Erik Miehs) before the rest of the band kicks into a very blackened sort of death metal sound. The music is great, the problem however is the vocals. They are almost unidentifiable being pushed right to the back of the mix and being lost amongst the heavily distorted guitar and drums which really takes a lot away from the song itself and really doesn't kick the album off to the greatest of starts. Having never listened to the band before this it may be a usual thing but it doesn't seem as bad on the rest of the album.
Teeth shows off the strength of Cressall's vocals really well. Going from deep growls to high screams he really has quite a vocal range and it makes it one of the better tracks on the album.
A Womb's Tone is a haunting instrumental track that would fit well into most horror movies before Obliterate's Prayer is a decent extreme metal track but does fall a bit into the category of the opening song with the vocals being lost against the music again which is unfortunate.
The album ends with the track Tabula Rasa which, musically, is brilliant. The guitar work especially is great, across the whole album it is in fact, but overall the song isn't anything spectacular.
Most of this album sounds far too similar and what started out with a bit of promise, unfortunately, became quite boring. Fans of this genre will probably lap this up but other than that don't bother.
Matt Barton