Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Imperium - Titanomachy (2016)

Formed from members of Trigger The Bloodshed and Cenotaph as well as former members of Boodshot Dawn and Prostitute Disfigurement (that would be the band's new vocalist, Doug Anderson) we have what is the first record from these guys since the Mayans predicted an apocalypse that never came. In any case, fans of Hate Eternal and The Black Dahlia Murder will probably enjoy this sophomore effort quite a bit, but there are just a ton of bands playing in this style and I feel that's one of the main weaknesses here in Titanomachy. A similar style might be fine for some, but I've heard this already and own several albums that sound very much the same. Just in flipping through these cuts a second time, I've noticed that no matter how killer these guitar solos are, they always seem to appear in the same spot for practically every song. That's completely fine too, but it doesn't really give me the listener anything new to chew on. Other than a lot of technicality and some rather engaging solos by the twin-guitar team of Mike Alexander and Rob Purnell, there's not much more to engage yourself with. I will admit that the playing certainly sticks out in the mix, but the base matter of the act just seems like a vehicle for these two to simply shred the hell out of their guitars. They could have just as well done this in any type of band, but it just happens to be this modern death metal act where they've chosen to do so. It's the kind of record where many things seem shoveled in despite their obvious brutality and aside from what I'd consider rather tasteful guitar engagements, I'm just getting a big heavy block of metal. You can definitely pick up this record for the shredding, but the rest of it really doesn't offer that much unless you like run of the mill modern death outputs. It just doesn't have quite enough of a bite for me, but I probably would have dug it years ago, especially if I hadn't listened to many other bands of this style before.

Having said this, I am by know means shoveling waste upon the guitar compositions here. I love my solos and could absolutely recommend the record based on those alone, but that seems to be all that it really offers. Take something like Whitechapel and add tons of solos, tons and tons of solos – and that's what you're getting with this one. Once again, there's nothing wrong with that and I know that some people are really going to dig it, but it's just not quite my bag. Maybe with a couple more listens it could grow on me, but as of right now I'm not getting the best second impression. If you've got to have your technical riffs and more solos than you can fit in a Greyhound bus, then go for it. I just need a little more substance, possibly not so much of the same style or tempo used in practically every song. That leans me to boredom, as not everything should just be ungodly hard and fast. Slow it down a bit gentlemen, you're not going to a fire.

(12 Tracks, 44:00)

7/10

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