Withered Shades

As time goes by, the quest for the unique in music exponentially grows in futility, and one question is asked: "maybe instead of looking for originality in music we should just appreciate those all they do is the same-old, yet do it awesomely? Or is it me, blabbering again, having absolutely no idea how to open this darn review?"

Anyway, Ophis is just that kind of a band – just as the homophone suggests, "routine" would be the name of the game and an immediate association that rises in all things concerning the album in question – tempo and feel-wise, the premise "Withered Shades" mostly dwells in is a moderate, quasi-gracious and self-important stride (the almost-exclusive use of major scales significantly contributes to that "majestic" feel), with a cue emphasis on basic, melodic musical approach and rather rudimentary thematic resolutions with catchy hooks and harmonies to please your ear, but without grabbing your attention all too much really. Granted, if the clean vocals from Mourning Beloveth's, say, "A Disease for Ages" would be removed and both albums would be played back to back – one would really find it difficult to tell the two bands apart.

To finally kick the actual review off, I'd like to deviate from the common procedure by addressing the sound and production of the album first, since it would be the first thing to captivate your attention upon hearing this album as well – not only it's highly crisp and clear, you'd be overwhelmed by the ferocity it comes at you from the very get go. Imagine having an enormous frying pan swung at your face, hitting it in several different places simultaneously as it lands – same goes with this album. The guitar tone is so fat and omnipresent you might think you had a surround sound system installed in your head that you weren't aware of, but the more surprising thing is that the dominance of the guitars doesn't come in any rate at the expense of the audibility of the guitar parts and even those of other instruments – this album is among the few metal albums with a clear and audible bass guitar on it, for example. Truth to be told – the production of this album is so impressive I think it should be heralded as the new industry standard, nothing more and nothing less.

As far as the music goes, though, the most suitable qualitative way to describe it is that it delivers. Apart from the lack of identity issues addressed above, the potential enjoyment of this album, whilst present in abundance, is fairly limited. I won't try to sketch an in-depth parallel between "Withered Shades" and metalcore in order not to be misconstrued, but the two are indeed similar in essence (and there are some pig squeals on the beginning of "Halo of Worms", wink wink), that is – in relying more on quick-fixes and not a deep and comprehensive listening and evaluation. In addition to the highly competent input by every single band member, one can tell that the fellows in Ophis are no amateur as far as song-writing goes, and are well-versed in how to write a lengthy tune without losing its cohesiveness at midway on one hand while avoiding from using 10-bar-long droning power chord fills, and what it needs to saturate the song while maintaining the overall feel (i.e. where an how to put a blast-beaten part to keep you awake without breaching out of the somber mood). The main issue with all these is that the resultant comes out all too soothing and polished on the verge of being obnoxious, and devoid of any curveballs that you might want to have thrown at you that could have propelled this album from being good to something truly special.


Overall: This album could have been great, if only there were not as many albums that are just as great already. If a scale is to be drawn with art at one end and blind trend-hopping at the other – Ophis are located somewhere in between, not really ripping-off any doom/death band in particular, but also not sounding too different than any of them. You really want to hear this one, though, especially if you just started getting into doom/death recently – most likely you'd have quite a kick off it any way.

[Favorite bit: Necrotic Reflection]