Death is June -Fallujah : "Xenotaph"

In keeping with my goal of covering every aspect of the genre, here is some progressive death metal that is more on the atmospheric side.  Guitarist Scott Carstairs is the only original member of this band. The last album I reviewed by them was "Undying Light," which I felt played it safe and moved in a more metalcore direction. Things are in a more progressive direction, though it does sacrifice some of the heaviness, and over-produced layers of vocals create an Opeth sound when they would be better served following the path of Cynic. Not that Opeth did not redeem themselves with their last album, but even they have been known to get too proggy for their own good. Things flow from the opening track to "Kaleidoscopic Waves," where it all sounds like it could be the same song. Even on the second listen, this happened. Showing a uniformity of sound that feels like they are more focused on sound and acrobatics than writing songs. 

"Labyrinth of Stone" is marginally heavier. But also more melodic, I feel like the production is playing against the heaviness as the guitars sound over-processed, which might be a great tone to play solos with, but lacks dance muscle. They get heavier and a little more interesting with "the Cyrstalline Veil" by heavier there is not a huge sonic shift tonally but more in the deliberate hammering of what they have to work with, and the melodic elements feel less like your metal core tropes. If you are into guitar solos, then I can't imagine why this is not already your favorite band. 'Step Through the Portal and Breathe' is more progressive, but it feels like an extension of the previous song, and they are just jamming in a more Devon Townsend direction. 

Some sounds are being made for "A Parasitic Dream' none of them adding up into anything that hooks me into what I would call a catchy song, or anything I would feel compelled to listen to more than once. The more atmospheric side of technical death metal stirs to life for "The Obsidian Architect". I like the effects on the creepy Dimmu Borgir-like section of vocals. This might be the album's best song. It conjures a little darker mood, but the album could stand to be darker overall. The title track closes the album, and rapid-fire drums that sound triggered lead the attack.  A thicker, more palm-muted attack would make all of this heavier, but we get what we get here. Lots of solos and jumbled riffs, kinda bores me, prefer what they did on the previous song. I will give this an 8 as they are clearly talented and sometimes fall into cool grooves, but this is not my thing.Out on Nuclear Blast.  

7

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