Rareform

After the Burial's second release. I'm very impressed, having never listened to this band before. The whole album is very technical. My only qualm with the instrumentation is the vocals. They're kind of grating, sort of a mid-range yell, with some lower grunts and screams. The album's songs are mostly melodic riffs, pretty nice shredding solos, some really sweet softer melodies that are my favorite part of the album. There also a lot of breakdowns reminiscent of Meshuggah and Ion Dissonance. Sometimes the songs will have a few too many breakdowns, but they're better than your standard chugga-chugga deathcore breakdown, they at least change chords occasionally and use some pretty cool rhythms.

The guitarists definitely get a workout playing this. Lots of tremolo picking, pedal points, and odd rhythms. I've heard the drummer is actually a drum machine, and if it is, whoever programmed them did a pretty good job. The cymbal production seems thin though, and I don't like the triggered double bass sound either. The actual beats are pretty neat though and so are the fills.

This album is basically technical melodic death metal with Meshuggah breakdowns and some heavier death metal riffing. The vocalist may even be considered to be doing hardcore vocals. But I don't consider this a deathcore album. It's pretty original sounding, if it is. Most metalheads probably won't like this release saying the breakdowns are unnecessary, and sometimes I agree, but I think this band will continue maturing and use the breakdown more effectively and tastefully.

Rareform deserves this score because it’s “deathcore” in rareform. It’s original, even if melodic riffing has been done before, they add their own twist to it. Breakdowns ala Meshuggah have been done before, but not quite like this. The seventh track Ometh, is one of the more original songs I’ve heard in a long time, and my favorite song on the album. There are sometimes, too many breakdowns. Just be wary of that.

If you like Arsis, Meshuggah, Ion Dissonance, The Faceless, Quo Vadis and similar artists, you will like this album.