Defiant Imagination

Quo Vadis is a band I have always loved because of their superiority over other bands in the same genre as it, their effort of constantly pushing the envelope and trying something innovative in a rather un innovative genre. The band’s debut entitled, “Forever” which was released in 1996 showcased the talent the band possessed even in its early days. 4 years later, in the March of 2000 with the release of, “Day Into Night” they gained an immense fan base in Canadian the metal scene but with the release of the band’s third effort, “Defiant Imagination” they have forever left a mark on modern death metal history.

If you have heard that three of the four band members have left the band after this record then I offer my shoulder for you to weep upon but they have gone and done so with a ear splitting bang. The sheer force, aggression, speed and immaculate technicality have made me believe that this is THE best Technical Melodic Death album out there.

The band has undergone a missive change in line-up as well as managed to rope in possibly the greatest bass player in metal alive today, the ever so creative improviser, and technical genius, Steve DiGiorgio. He may well have been the stimulus this band with immense talent needed to reach the highest possible platform of this genre.

Stephane Pare, has replaced the only long standing matter of concern for the band over the years, Are Itman and has delivered ridiculously and appallingly well. The guy has improved in leaps and bounds and finally achieved what he has trying to do so unimaginably hard for the majority of the last decade and his effort have paid off. He has developed this emotional, yet sinister and extremely mature vocal style full of extremely throaty vocals. Not only that there is the occasional clean vocal section, or the yell, he has mastered them all. The 17 second long growl in the beginning of the first track, which never loses its intensity during the entirety is such that can put the likes of the famous Tom Araya scream in “Angel Of Death” or Bruce Dickinson’s scream in “The Number Of The Beast” to utmost shame.

Steve’s performance on the bass is unsurprisingly killer. The man has always delivered whether he has worked for death metal greats like Autopsy or Death, or even in his technical thrash project Sadus. His immense experience and knowledge in metal has rubbed off on the band members and has killer bass antics aren’t missed here. Strings of bass riffs and solos can be found under the actual riffs. Making the bass sound at times mellow or making the bass that fast to keep up with the shredding done by Bart Frydrychowicz, the man succeeds in all.

Yanic Bercier just manages to up the ante every single time he appears on the album. If on thought his work on the cymbals and snares was great last time around, this time his increase in power, sheer speed and immaculate perfection in technicality is worth mentioning. He has along with these added a brilliant vision of exactly what he wants and the ability to play at different speeds and time signatures on the upper and lower halves on the drums. It’s no surprise he won an award for “Best Performance of Drums” for this album.

The album starts off with a bang with the album opener, “Silence Calls The Storm”. A relentless attack on the snares doubled only the technical fast as well as efficient work on the double bass followed by that powerful growl I just mentioned. The song has a small, mellow section too and the bass work during that time deserved special mention. “In Contempt”, “Break The Cycle” and “Tunnel Effect” follow. Each of these tracks maintains the flow and is super fast and technical. The song writing has improved yet furthermore with this release. The switch between mid-tempo, mellow and extremely fast sections though highly technical and yet maintaining the flow speaks volumes of the musicianship of the band. Jazz influenced song structures keeps a firm grip on the listener and he keeps him on the edge of the seat not knowing what to expect next.

What follows this is my personal favorite off of this release. To The Bitter End. Words cannot describe this track. It starts off with Yanic attacking the double bass and the snares, both in different speeds and time signatures and is backed by the bass of Steve. The guitars soon follow matching up to the now crazy speed of the drums. The vocal delivery is perfect and right at point. A couple of breakdowns and an extremely melodic guitar solo, actually 2 for that matter comprise this track. A masterpiece in itself, and basking in the showcase of brilliant musicianship and song writing prowess of the band, the band has once again pushed the envelope in the genre. Tracks like the technical “Fate’s Descent” and the most down beta and melodic track “Dead Man’s Diary” keep to the strong flow of the band.

The band’s love for classical music is once again shown in the tracks, “In Articulo Mortis” and “Ego Intuo Et Servo Te”. The band arranged for a full choir soprano singers for the first of these two tracks and a bunch of violin players added to the majesty of a sadly short track. “Ego Intuo Et Servo Te” on the other hand is a sad and depressing track created with the help of instruments like the little heard of shamisen. This track is a tribute to the ancient classical music of countries like Japan.

One thing that I noticed is that when bands usually add a track or two in the album which are very short id duration, they usually act as worthless intros to the track that immediately follows just to increase the number of tracks on the album. 2 tracks of very short length, the classical ones I mentioned in the above paragraph, though very short length act are tracks in their own and even though “In Articulo Mortis” acts like an intro to “Fate’s Descent” it can be considered a track in its own and not just an intro of a track separated from the rest of it.

The band has always provided us with excellent lyrics and they have improved over time. Lyrically the release is great and I would present to you an excerpt from To The Bitter End.

“Why should I
pay the price for your mistakes?
For transgressions
not remotely mine
Loyalty of blood
condemns me with your sins
Paying with my life
Silent I remain
Empty walls cry out my name.

Burn, ignited by my will
Slowly consumed from within
amongst the damned
you will descend
you should be the one paying the price”

It’s sad that the moment the band, reached its peak and achieved its winning combination more than half of the band had to leave it because of differences that could not be patched up. Call it co-incidental, but the last track the band made was a slow mournful one, “Ego Intuo Et Servo Te”.

“Fate,
Will make,
You pay.”

Isn’t this is exactly what happened. (?).