The Batlord

Death Angel: Relentless Retribution

Death Angel's most recent album. Sweet.




Alright, no cliched melodic guitar intro. This seems even like it's going to be an even more abrasive album than the last. The guitar tone is like a buzzsaw, the band sound more pissed off than they have ever sounded before, and Mark Osegueda has a new snarl that is totally unlike his more clean singing style of the past. I'm not sure how much I like the new vocals, but they do have a certain bite to them.

Oh. Second song, "Claws In so Deep" is showing signs of metalcore-ness. That breakdown wouldn't sound out of place on a new Machine Head album, and those melodic choruses wouldn't be either. But that flamenco guitar (?) at the end is pretty awesome.

Edit: Apparently the acoustic outro was done by Rodrigo y Gabriela, which is cool. I saw them do a show on Austin City Limits on PBS a while back and they were pretty fantastic. It also makes sense that they would do this since they apparently started out in a thrash metal band. They even did a quick medley with "Master of Puppets" at the end of their show. I need to listen to more of them.

Alright, I've heard "Truce" before. And it wasn't this song. I think this is, or at least the beginning, has been ripped off from...I'll think of it. It's clear in my head the beginning of the song, but I just can't remember the rest of it. I'm thinking Slayer, but I can't be sure. Well, either way, they do a great job with this song.

My fears are being allayed so far. This is definitely a modern take on Death Angel that will be palatable to people who I find to be...unfortunate, but this sounds nothing like Trivium, which is about my only criteria these days. So long as my ass is being kicked I'll let my purism alarm go off all it wants to. And it certainly is.

That's where I remember "Truce" from! The opening riffs sounds suspiciously like Evile's "Enter the Grave". Perhaps not a complete lift, but there's definitely a similarity.

You know, I'm about halfway through, and I'm kind of losing interest. The chugging riffs and melodic choruses and Machine Head worship are becoming a bit dull. I keep forgetting to listen to the songs and just end up using them for background listening. The first few are pretty awesome, but...losing interest.

Yeah, interest lost. Good to know. I was thinking of picking this up. Will skip.

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