Hell yeah, this'll do it. By far one of the most anticipated metal releases of the year for me, the sophomore full-length from The Dying Light is indeed a benchmark release for 2005, if not the decade, taking technical death metal about as far as it's gone in quite some time in terms of overall songwriting quality and individual uniqueness. Here they take the death/thrash roots of their debut and amp things up with more melody and more complexity, mingling with ample lead vocal tradeoffs between strained yet understandable screams/snarls across a lower- to upper-midrange span - all of which is probably best exemplified by the perfect opener in the midpaced crunch and well textured lead work of the title track. "All Crowns Fall" blazes through less than two minutes of slightly more typical technical death metal fare in terms of wild speeds and chaotic riffing (at least at the start), but the total mid-tempo thrash that takes over is damn nice; followed by the similar thrash metal blitzkrieg of "Jaws of Dis", which runs barely over two minutes and rarely lets up on the speed, tossing down some sweet lead runs and a lot of shockingly tight rhythm playing that's quite flamboyant in terms of fluid tremolo picking. "Freezing the Spirit" blew me away on the two-song sampler that preceded the release of the disc, and it's definitely the overwhelming classic of the full-length as well, opening with a gorgeous acoustic passage before settling on lots of ripping alternate picking riffs and subtle hints at dissonant melody. "Serve the Hidden Masters" has a chunkier intro with some staccato picking patterns and actually remains fairly consistent throughout, giving the solos a bit more room to move around (which I'd love to hear more often, as the leads kick ass). But "The Bodiless" blends strangely caustic note choices with borderline "catchy" power chord surges and flurries of tech'd out licks for one of the most memorable cuts, and I think that level of energy could really do some insane damage if they hit on it more often. Oddly one of the longer tracks, instrumental "Haunting Recollections" (How's that for a classic sounding death metal title!?), blows through some hammer-on/pull-off tapping riffs and other staples of the flashy instrumental metal cannon, but despite some promise is actually the only track that allows enough time for a lull to arise, so it starts to get a little old midway through; before "This World is Sinking" brings things back to form with its discordant cascades. Production duties were tackled by Eric Rutan and I think this is definitely the strongest outing I've heard from his hands. The tones are clinical without losing feeling, the mix is crisp and clear, etc. I'm all over the guitar tone because it's very well honed and has a warm, crunchy edge to it; while the bass isn't too prominent but still helps to fill in the gaps. The percussion is taut but certainly has a good presence of resonance and warmth that all helps to highlight a damn impressive performance that blends extraordinarily frantic patterns with slick fills. Overall it sounds pretty damn good, so I don't have any complaints. The layout's on the inconsistent side and sort of loses its visual impact for me once you get past the nice looking cover, but I do think the intriguing faux handwriting font they've used actually fits well, and despite a jumbled overall appearance they do present some nice imagery on occasion. The lyrics are kind of hard to read, but the content seems to keep things rather suggestive of certain themes of empowerment through occult-ish references and such: "All has been lost, the prisoners of the five sense are slain, There is nothing that shall not be trampled, crushing all that can be bled, nothing survives, the scattering of limbs, with no haste, mercy cast aside, as the white is stained with blood..." All in all this is definitely an exercise in precision and aggressive attack, what with the entire disc clocking in at a mere 26 minutes. Such short songs tend to keep the focus on point and prevent time for stagnation or wandering, and that definitely pays off in cooperation with the band's knack for incredible musicianship and creative, forceful riffs galore. It's a shame it took as long as it did for this fucker to hit the streets, but it was well worth the wait, and if they continue to progress in this manner then I can't fuckin' wait to hear what comes next! Great stuff.
[Willowtip]
Running time - 25:56, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: The Killing Plan, All Crowns Fall, Freezing the Spirit, The Bodiless]
Willowtip - http://www.willowtip.com
