Requiem Aeternam is a progressive black/death metal group from Uruguay. This is their third full-length record to be released in their fifteen year history. Previous members have included Martin López (ex-Opeth, ex-Amon Amarth) and Martin Méndez (Opeth) within their ranks.
Essentially coming off of their 2004 record, "Philosopher," this new album takes those abstract concepts and turns them into even more extravagant tracks. I'll be the first to say that that album was a bit much when it came to all the different melodies and playing styles overlapping made the album just a bit too confusing, and this album essentially takes that principal and makes it even weirder. Instead of focusing on philosophy, this album is instead supposed to focus on different classical composers, and that can be seen throughout this entire album.
The complicated riffs and melodies playing over each other definitely lend themselves to a classical oriented sound. Though the within these more orchestrated sounding melodies are riffs that lend themselves to genres like black and death metal, and the occasional prog-rock or traditional power metal part, hear Freewill. The drumming is very precise and mechanical, I'd be surprised if it was a real person cause it sounds like a drum machine. Quick assaults blast you over and over in each track while remaining very dynamic and powerful. I found that when the band slowed themselves down enough to bring in the more proggy influences, it often did this album good, really giving the listener a breather from all the blasting and, at times, spastic arrangements, hear a track like Ser for a more mellow track.
However, like I mentioned above, this record is similar to the last one in that I find it very difficult to penetrate. Most songs on here lack hooks or melodies that are graspable and are somewhat difficult to grab a hold of and focus on. Things are often speeding up and then slowing down and moving at frantic paces that finding something to hold your attention long enough to get into it can be more than a challenge. I could see fans of mathcore acts like The Dillinger Escape Plan or Botch being able to get into this a lot easier than a prog-fan, IE. Dream Theater or Opeth.
Overall, I found this to be a decent record, it wasn't as "clear" as I guess I might have wanted it to be, but I could see how others could get into this. This is definitely a record that requires several listens, as can be shown, it's not the easiest thing to listen to out there. If you like technical, progressive extreme metal, give this a whirl.
Overall Score: 7
Highlights: Requiem Aeternam, Freewill, Vying
RA is the best Latin American metal band!!!
ReplyDeleteI recently listened to Destiny-Man, and found it to be a record totally different of everything else in metal, so different that I still don't understand at all.
ReplyDeleteMe gustaba mas REQUIEM cuando arrancaron, especialmente cuando estaban los de OPETH. No obstante creo que es la banda metalera con mas potencial a nivel compositivo en America Latina.
ReplyDeleteAldo Trenches, desde Colombia.