Route Code Selector

After their excellent debut, Hydrodinamic Wave, my expectations for Lunarsea’s sophomore long play were pretty high, for I considered them (and probably still, though less strongly) one of the most promising bands in the stagnant melodic death metal field. Two years after the Wave’s strike, the italians returned with Route Code Selector, which despite its superior production values and even higher technical proficiency is actually a bit of a letdown. It’s like the spark of creativity diminished a bit and they also got somehow lost in more progressive compositions, losing some of the catchiness of their first release.

Personal taste aside, I’m sure many people will enjoy this one more than the italian’s debut, solely because of the meatier production. Indeed, the drums have more muscle an hit way harder here than on the previous album. And also, Daniele Biogiotti’s screams are more menacing and have much more presence, a result of both the better production and the singer’s own effort to sing harsher. He’ll occasionally will delve into fairly low death metal growling, to good effect, showing an increase in his singing capabilities. And the clear vocals, while still present, are used less than on Hydrodinamic Wave.

The bass is still not very audible nor important, and keeps doing it’s bidding behind everything else. The keyboards here have lost presence and power, being more relegated to the background, (or as an introductory piano in the closer “Subspace Transition”) which is an important loss for the sake of this band’s originality, and reason why I consider this album a bit disappointing. The guitars, along with the vocals, have become the primary actors of this play, and they’re still excellent, albeit more technical, sometimes too much. The solos continue to kick tremendous ass most of the time, but they sadly become mindless wank-fests at some points. The drums also have followed this trend, though in a more successfully manner, and all the songs have their decent share of drum accents that keep the rhythmic section interesting, like the intense blast-beating ending of “Ashen”.

Most songs maintain the same level of quality here, and there no particular highlights, or at least they’re not as easily identifiable for me as it was in their previous effort. But for me the best songs here are found in the middle section of the album, starting with “The Apostate”, with tempo changes and different motifs that, despite being progressive and adventurous, produce a catchy song. Next we have the already mentioned “Ashen”, which while being one of the longer tracks, is actually a breath of fresh air with its simpler, yet moody, structure, and finally, the “Five-Sided Platform Shape” which is my absolute favorite of this album, being the most catchy and memorable, complete with really fast riffage, an awesome solo and particularly its amazing growled chorus, IAWW IAWW IAWW IAWW!...

While despite its flaws Hydrodinamic Wave remains my favorite of the current two releases from this italian band, Route Code Selector is an unquestionably strong melodeath album, well above average in terms of quality of what most bands in the genre are doing nowadays, and I’m certainly looking forward Lunarsea’s next release. If you enjoy fairly technical and progressive melodic death metal and are tired of the same sugar-coated In Flames clones get this one and give it some spins!