Promo 2007

Well, Polishdèbin are from Quebec, Canada, and this is their first demo. According to their Metal Archive entry Thrash Metal should be expected if someone would give this music a try. Yet matters are more difficulty as they might have seen on the first glance. The aforementioned classification does by no means cover all the facets that might be recognized on the Promo 2007. Especially the song-writing stretched beyond the ordinary routine in the Thrash Metal genre and the way the riffs have been arranged is indeed different.

In terms of the music is it as such: a lot of variation has lead to a structure in which there are hardly very long passages that might be limited to one riff only. There are abrupt switches towards new motives, but nevertheless a good deal of catchiness can be maintained. Heavy Metal and Thrash riffs make up the music of Polishdèbin and most of it is not faster than midtempo. Furthermore tends the band to vary them to a good deal and sometimes be their play closely oriented towards the drums or vice versa; the same can be said of the bass-guitar. Breaks are used extensively and even though there is some chorus, the whole arrangement of the songs is not similar to those often heard in more mainstream oriented music.

What annoys me, are the vocals. Their style is rather a hit or miss and as I dislike this croaking way of screaming or whatever kind of description might be appropriate, there is little room in my musical preferences for such performance. Especially Woupelaye overstretches it in my opinion to a good deal and the end of the songs is utterly annoying. Someone in favour of more modern approaches of Thrash Metal might find some worth in it. Beside this is the music not entirely bad, but a little bit plain and in terms of the song-writing and the ideas could have been elaborated a little bit further. What is the use of such a neat opening riff like on LaShit, if it is being heard merely two times over the whole length of the song; whereas the other ones are quite plain compared to it?

It is a neat demo and would the vocals different there might be chance that I would listen to it a little bit more often… or at all in the future. This part of the music is an important facet for my perception of it and does the band fail in this respect entirely it is quite difficult for me to enjoy their art. Perhaps I am too picky on this topic, but everyone has his preferences. In terms of the song-writing there should be noted that they are not bad and quite catchy, but there is little that would last after it has passed. Variation in structure has lead vice versa to a decrease in understanding the idea behind a song and to ‘follow’ the band. Accordingly have the riffs little influence on the quality of the recordings as their arrangement was not done to unleash their full potential. Nevertheless is the demo quite good to listen to, but with some critical scrutiny the flaws of Polishdèbin’s art can be discovered; without much effort to be frank. This demo is a nice start, but nothing more.

Recommended: LaShit

Short:

Performance: a solid piece of Thrash Metal with influences from other genres.
Production: quite good; all instruments can be recognizes; perhaps the vocals are a little bit too dominant.
Song-writing: a lot of variation, oriented towards creating catchy music.
Annoying: the vocals… uuuh, they are not my cup of tea.
Booklet: promo-copy; some sheets with information;
Length: 17:57 minutes.