Here’s another album I was anticipating, but ultimately found boring. I remember buying their debut, Inside the Machine and thinking they had some potential, but after four or five spins, I shelved it and eventually sold it. So now, two years later we have Dead Harvest, and nothing more than another serving of potential unrealized. For those unfamiliar with the group, they are the reformed and renamed version of A Canorous Quintet, a Gothenburg styled melodic death band formed in the early 90’s that never got much recognition, overshadowed by the usual suspects.

Melodic Death Metal is still the order of the day here, perhaps a bit more aggressive and mean than than the majority of stuff being passed off as such these days, but it doesn’t help the fact that their end results here are lackluster and yawn inspiring. The songs are all a bit same-y, lacking any real identifying traits or standout moments, sans a solo or two (“Machinery”, “Instigator of Dead Flesh”), or the march type drum intro to “Army of the Dying Sun”. Most of the songs have sort of a mechanical/industrial feel to them and incorporate some chugga-chugga groove type moments between the more melodic ones. I must say though that Fredrik Andersson (also of Amon Amarth) delivers a blistering performance behind the kit throughout the disc.

I honestly don’t have anything else to say about this. It’s not terrible or painful to listen to, but doesn’t evoke any feelings of any kind other than the urge to switch to something more eventful. Uber fans of Melodic Death Metal may want to give it a go, but I don’t think theres much warrant to check it out beyond that.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments