Restart Your Mind

I’m really getting tired of all these melodic death metal promos coming my way. I pretty much hate the stuff, and I feel sickened when I’m struck by such commercial sounding stuff like Laments of Silence. The only thing separating them from In Flames is the fact that this guy actually screams most of the time. Well, ok, that’s not exactly fair; these lads have a keyboard as well.

I know it might sound harsh and judgmental, but I just don’t hear any difference between this, the aforementioned In Flames, Soilwork and whatnot. Everything sounds the same, and it’s built around the same kind of predictable arrangements and song structures. You take a somewhat heavy (but still easylistening) main riff, chug away and add a melodic guitar line. There aren’t really any rememberable riffing going on; at times it even sounds like they’re just rehashing the same riff for several different songs. It’s heavy in production but not in playing, if you catch my drift. I mean, it sounds heavy due to the production, but it really isn’t in reality. At times the chugging and breakdowns are on the verge of metalcore/mallcore, like Korn tried to play Gothenburg death but still wanted to hit the big charts. They absolutely flood their music with ultra melodic keyboard lines and annoying sounds, which makes it sound even more melodic and commercial. Some of the keys are on the verge of goth, almost like taken straight off of a Cradle of Filth album. I mentioned the vocals and said the vocalist screams most of the time, and so he does. But even the screams sound commercial; a sort of easylistening scream. Of course the choruses and some backups have clean vocals, how else would the emo kids sing along? The drummer is competent, however, and he certainly complements the lame tempos with talented playing.

I know it might sound harsh and judgmental; but what the hell… I can’t help but to feel this type of music is an insult to death metal, to even call it death metal. I honestly can’t tell the difference between this and any other band of the same style. But hey; I never claimed to like the style in the first place.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net