A World Destroyer

What the hell has happened to my favourite melodeath bands?! First Norther, now Degradead… I haven’t thought I’d ever say this but I’m glad The Duskfall disbanded. It’s a great comfort to know that at least they will never release any crap. Making a weaker album is no crime; it happens and a fan should be able to understand and forgive. But making an album of so disastrously low quality, so different from the previous one, can’t be forgiven. At least my forbearance is limited. A band I consider one of my favourites must keep a certain level. The minimal requirement is staying within a genre it used to represent. And so, if melodeath remains within broadly understood death metal nothing disastrous may happen. But if it turns towards power or heavy metal or, even worse, flirts with pop… Well, then we get Norther’s Circle Regenerated and Degradead’s A World Destroyer. What a confusing title, by the way! Judging by this only, you’d expect a brutal ass-kicker. Ha, ha, very funny. A more appropriate title would be A Vomit Inducer! Eh, why am I so angry? After the Amoral-trauma I should know better and always be prepared for the worst…

Two years ago I wrote here an anthem for Degradead’s Out Of Body Experience. I was enchanted with its freshness, with guitar solos, with everything except for clean vocals (which, however, were insignificant constituent of the album and spoiled one song only). Now the freshness is gone – the band members play like old farts suffering from dementia. Guitar solos don’t go smoothly, are forced and irritating. And what struck me most, it seems that the only song of Out Of... I dislike has become a model for all tracks of A World Destroyer. A bit ironical, isn’t it?

Let’s forget about vocals for a while. Musically Degradead haven’t changed that much; they use the same techniques, the rhythm and tempo are the same too. But the music somehow degenerated. It has become effete, a bit boring and unpleasantly softened. The drumming is mechanical and devoid of energy, like Kenneth was dozing off during the recordings. Something wrong has also happened to guitars. Apart from miserable solos, the guitars sound similar to keyboards(?!) at times, which is simply a blasphemy. And the real keyboards are here too! In fact I’m under an impression that I hear some shit-keyboards in the background all the time. There’s no doubt, though, that they proudly manifest themselves in choruses. As if clean vocals were not enough to make those choruses insufferable.

Yeah, choruses… A World Destroyer contains the set of most affected choruses I’ve ever heard on a metal album. Choosing the worst of them is a real challenge. Tracks 5, 7 and 9 are in the lead but I still can’t make up my mind. On the other hand, I can say easily which chorus is most tolerable – the one of A False Hope. Anyway, I quite like the whole song.

Beside keyboards, clean vocals are the most characteristic choruses’ feature. Except for the one of The Final Judgment, which I don’t like too (singing each phrase with a different voice is not a good idea). Although I’m definitely a growl-worshipper, I’ve never been against the clean vocals’ use in death metal and its subgenres. But there are clean vocals and clean vocals. Think of Aleksi Sihvonen. Think of Ari Koivunen. Think of the worst clean vocals you ever heard and be sure that Micke Sehlin can do equally badly.

Here’s a brief survey of the most “outstanding” vocal effects in A World Destroyer’s choruses.
A Taste Of Destiny: a piercing operatic cry (I guess this is how drunk Tony Kakko sounds) and prolonging of vowels in a weepy way.

Broken: Have you happened to hear a magnificent chorus of a song Durch den Monsun by a magnificent band Tokio Hotel? If you listened to Degradead’s Broken, be sure you already have.

No One Prevail: (Horrible intro, by the way) the whining of an affectionate teenage boy whose voice breaks.

Cold Blood: a cheerful “ awaaaaay” and “ooo-oo-o’s ”. In this song we also have a choral Gregorian-like interlude which fits here like a fist into an eye.

Near The End: A boysband-like intro kills. And this very phrase is then repeated in the chorus. Plus hateful repetitions of the phrases’ endings.

Kept In The Dark. “Save me from myself” wails Micke. It should be rather “Save me from my clean vocals”.

That’s it, roughly. You may wonder why I rated this album so high then? Just because it’s quite nice when you listen to it turning the volume down each time a song nears its chorus. And, above all, because of Sehlin’s harsh vocals. This is the only flawless element of this album. Micke presents here the whole range of his growling styles, any of which is great. Since the previous album he has even improved. There is something perverse about that a guy who is able to growl like this has also such an abominable manner of clean singing. It’s like a Viking wearing a dress! Eh, Mikael, Mikael, drop clean vocals and I’m all yours.

CLARIFICATON: An adjective "nice" I've used above is confusing as it may suggest that listening to this album gives me some pleasure. No, it doesn't. Yet, I c a n listen to it.