Single Year: 2013
Genre: Melodic Deathcore / Groove Metal
Location: Rush City, Minnesota
Facebook: Here
Immediately when I started researching this band I’d found myself at a crossroads. At every glance I saw the band describing themselves as either technical, experimental or progressive deathcore. At this I thought “wow, this will either be a band that plays extremely complex leads and riffs to obscure timing signitures, offbeat drum patterns and will leave me plain senseless, or perhaps this is a case of genre confusion”. I’d actually hoped I was about to listen to something like Animals As Leaders with a little more deathcore type structure to it but found myself surprised when I listened to “Tall Tales”.
I was pleasantly greated with an instantaneous start to the song. I greatly admired the “no bullshit” attitude that seemed to differ this band from so many others in it’s scene. I’ve spent too many times as a listener only appreciating a song’s half minute intro the first few times before growing tired of it and skipping ahead to the first verse anyway.
By this point I had realised what I was listening to actually had a Groove/Deathcore style to it with that almost volumes style riffing that formed the main structure. You know, the kind of groovy and slightly djenty riff that makes you involuntarily immitate a pecking duck with your head. well maybe that’s just me…
I was quickly impressed by the song’s light and dark dynamic. Each section of the song had a different feel and style to it that was cleverly stringed together with harmonising guitar riffs, bright leads and dynamic breaks. I feel however that the song’s breakdowns sacrificed it’s flow and progression. They were cleverly made and well placed but this was due more to the actual production. These were quickly made up for with more leads and sweeps being layered over giving the song it’s fullness again.
The band’s vocalist seemed to have a good grasp on his technique, ranging from the dry highs/mids/mid lows with lots of grind that reminded me a lot of Adam Warren of Oceano, to Those brutal Hollowed out Low’s that scream (pun intended) of Phil Bozeman of Whitchapel. The only problem seemed to be that there were parts of the song where the vocals would become confusing and disoriented due to a consistant doubled up vocal track running out of time with the track it was supposed to accent.
My favourite part was when the song had taken a melodic turn and the vocalist started singing clean! As a singing teacher and vocalist myself, I was deeply impressed by his technique and dynamics and found myself wanting to hear more.
Overall I love the song for it’s feel, dynamics and structure. I look forward to hearing more of Descripti()ns in the future.
Rating: 8/10