Though many have thought melodic death metal dead for a few years now (thanks, In Flames), a few releases here in late 2011/2012 by the likes of Vale of Pnath, Pictured, December Flower, Darkness By Oath, Allegaeon and Karnak Seti have shown there’s a bit of life in the genre yet. And here is Italy’s In Sight to add to that list by way of their 3rd album, and while it isn’t quite as genre reviving as the aforementioned acts, it has enough really good moments to standout.

What gives In Sight a little edge in the genre is the additional female vocals of Emanuelle Antonelli. While main vocalist Andrea provides a typical melodic death metal, gruff rasp, she backs him up and compliments him for almost all the material-shes not just there for sugary choruses and tits . Her powerful, but upbeat voice has a ballsy, traditional heavy metal tone and adds just a little something to many of the songs that’s a little more than the cliched sort of The Agonist/In This Moment croons.

Beyond that, the actual music is decent- it’s a pretty standard,  melodic death metal affair with a bit of a thrash backbone. It has a catchy, energetic canter for the most part with dual guitars,a few grooves and leads abound. It’s nothing ground breaking, but its good enough that when standout track  “InSight” popped up randomly on my Ipod shuffle mode, I cranked it, rocked out pretty hard and checked out the rest of the album to write this review. And while the rest of the album isn’t quite as attention grabbing, the likes of “Frost Hate”, chunky starting gallop of “Parasite”, and intense melodies of  “For the Sake of the Show” are certainly enjoyable  and the album’s 9 track, brisk length never out stays its welcome.

On the downside, Andrea’s gruff vocals tend to get a bit metalcore/hardcore-ish at times, there’s a cliched, requisite ballad in “Rary” with Emanuelle taking on a more typical softer tone, and the production is a bit hollow. But otherwise, From the Depths is an enjoyable, disposable  little album that provided a well needed break from brutal or technical death metal.

 

 

 

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