Conclusion of an Age

When I first checked this band out on their myspace and heard the songs “Conclusion of an Age” and “Teras” I almost pissed my pants. I thought I had finally found a modern thrash band that wasn’t just a metalcore wannabe-thrash band and wasn’t a band that just ripped off of Slayer. I loved everything about those two songs. I looked around their page and they labeled themselves as “epic thrash metal” which I agreed with at the time. They said that they had a hint of melody in their sound as well which I was a little iffy about but I chose to ignore it.

When I got the album, the track “Desolate Seas” really started out great. It had a gallopy, percussive opening riff that actually had a unique rhythm to it and wasn’t just a sequence of triplets like a lot of other bands would have done. As the song progressed I thought “This is gonna be a great album,” but as soon as I thought that, it happened: there was a wishy-washy melodic break with emo clean vocals. I thought that it was just the first of few but it happened more and more. The entire layout of the album was that same formula: heavy, soft, soft, heavy, heavy, soft, etc. The only real sanctuary came with “Conclusion of an Age” but at that point I was just too mad to listen on any further. I never touched it again for a while, I was pissed at the fact that I had found yet another metalcore band that pretended to be thrash. I eventually ate those words later.

Something then convinced me to listen to it again and I had seen everything in a different light. The melodic parts (as lame as they were) did actually have good musicianship backing them and the lead guitar parts were outstanding. The parts that were heavy were also good and original and were indeed “thrashy.” The melodic parts also gave each song some texture and made it sound like the band knew what they were doing. There were several times when the melody was epic sounding, like in “Swallow the World,” and there were times when it was flat out lame, “Transcendence.” The melodic parts established the band on more of the melodic death metal than metalcore genre because they are too original and technical for any metalcore band and the lack of breakdowns also proves this. I personally think that this band fits more in the thrash/ melodic death metal genre than just the melodic death genre.

In conclusion it really isn’t a bad album. They all know how to play their instruments but the lead guitarist is defiantly the more musically acute person out of all of them. The production is pretty good, everything is loud and clear but there are several moments when the bass absolutely blasts out everything and cuts out even the best speakers at just medium volume. This is a great album for a debut album don’t get me wrong, my only hopes for the future is for them to tone down the melodic parts (not to get rid of them entirely) and to get rid of the emo clean vocals. If you absolutely hate anything that has to do with modern metal and just cringe at even the mention of melody then stay as far away from this album as you can. But if you are willing to give modern metal a chance and hear something a little original for once than you should check this album out.