Defiant Imagination

Sometimes there's an album that's a final message and turns out to be a band's best release. With Canadian technical death metal outfit Quo Vadis, this is pretty much the case with Defiant Imagination. Among the numerous death metal albums released in the early 2000s, Defiant Imagination stands out by containing nine tracks of varying time lengths and tempos.

For example, "Silence Calls the Storm" opens Defiant Imagination and is a fast tempo number with progressive tendencies. It displays an example of the album's neoclassical lead work that became trendy during this time period. "Break the Cycle"'s lyrics have a positive message that tells the listener to "never give up and trust your instincts", along with some technical guitar soloing mid-song. "To the Bitter End" is an example of a song where the numerous uncommon time signatures can be noticed on Defiant Imagination. The instrument patterns noticeably change with every two or three seconds. "Articulo Mortis" is also a standout for having a beautiful choir and some dramatic cello work. The song leads into "Fate's Descent" which could be summed up as if Necrophagist was covering Dark Tranquillity.

Speaking of Dark Tranquillity, Stéphane Paré's death growls on Defiant Imagination are like if Mikael Stanne did old-school death metal. The guitar work is very strong on Defiant Imagination as the guitar solos displayed on songs like "In Contempt" and "Tunnel Effect" are full of energy and spirit. The leads are also progressive and are played by neoclassical guitarists. Yanic Bercier's blast beats are notably layered over his double bass drumming, giving it more of a deathgrind kind-of-feel. More or less, Bercier's drum beats are carefully placed in the right locations within each song. So why am I giving this a perfect score? I'm adding bonus points for Steve DiGiorgio's bass playing which is very jazzy and is noticeable on tracks like "Dead Man's Diary" and "Break the Cycle".

As jazzy and classically influenced as it gets Defiant Imagination is an excellent closing statement for Quo Vadis and helped pave the way for more technical death metal bands that play neoclassical guitar. Defiant Imagination contains music that's well orchestrated, that even some cello-based bands like Apocalyptica struggle with understanding the beauty behind it. This is music that challenges the listener with complex time signatures and some of the best guitar work that death metal has to offer. Defiant Imagination is an album that transcends the boundaries of both technical and melodic death metal and therefore is one of the best death metal albums of its decade. Don't miss out on this excellent Montreal death metal album.