When the Sky Turns Black is one of the least heavy death metal albums I've ever heard, but it excels regardless of this little setback. When the Sky Turns Black is one massive compilation of shredding, dissonant chords, high quality vocals, and expertly played drums and bass.
The riffs on the guitar alternate rapid, and almost vapid sounding, to slower, somewhat heavy pieces. Everything is played to sound dischordant and creepy, there are moments like "screams of anguish" that disturb me time and time again, every time I listen (not so much the guitar there though). The solos are run of the mill stuff, sounding almost like scales in a squealing, high tone, I'm really getting tired of these. -points for that.
The vocals are well done with an appropriate amount of depth and emotion. The tone of the vocals generally suits the rest of the album well, not pairing CC like vocals with a more classical, melody focused cd. I couldn;t quite make out the lyrics, which, some people may consider good, some may think thats a bad thing. Personally, I prefer Larry's style to vocalists such as Mikael Akerfeldt because it feels a little more guttural and "powerful".
The drums are very good, played fast enough to keep up with the fastest parts of the rest of the cd, in fact, I think the drummer hits the double bass drum faster than a lot of drummers can play the snare. No one part of the drum kit seems to be over used, but there is a clear pattern to things; the drummer was not randomly banging on the drum kit by any means.
When the Sky Turns black probably isn't for you if your looking for unadulterated heaviness (if you are, look into Dying Fetus, Morbid Angel, or Skinless), but If you like a little melody in your death metal, you should thoroughly enjoy "When the Sky Turns Black".
8.75/10
No comments:
Post a Comment