Azure Emote have been around since 2003.  The debut album Chronicles of an Aging Mammal  was released in 2007 and the follow-up in 2013, The Gravity of Impermanence in 2013.  This band is the brainchild of Mike Hrubovcak and the band continues to incorporate their eclectic and highly original brand of death metal with their third album The Third Persepective. 

It’s been seven (7) years since the second album and this new album is quite excellent which has Ron Vento mixing the album and Dan Swanö handling the mastering album.  6 songs in 44 minutes so let’s get into the opening song, “Loss”. Massive double bass begins and then some amazing guitar melodies permeating with Mike’s vocals alternating with some higher vocals and deeper grunts.  Mike Heller drilling home some massive blast beats and Ryan Moll’s guitar work is impeccable and some killer soloing around the 2.30 moments, and since he also is playing bass on this, soon after the guitar solo the bass plucks are awesome.  There are some usage of drum programming, flute, maracas and the keyboards are awesome., throughout the album, but some of the keyboards on this track are great. This is just an excellent opening song.

We get two very long songs on this album and “Dark Realms” is the first one at over 10 minutes.  A brooding opening song with Mike using some shouting stylized vocals.  This is going with the massive double bass is mid-paced and Mike laying in some varying vocals tones of mid ranges, as well as growls.  All very discernible  Some wild soloing going on at the 2.30 mark.  The 5 minute mark has various instrumentation which is outstanding.  This continues for several minutes. Then guitar soloing comes in as the musical pace gets into faster territory.  The keyboards coming in here excellent and Mike does some great growling over this segment.   We get some clean vocals and then the song trails off with the keyboards, growls and guitar riffing.  One of the best Azure Emote songs ever.

“Negative Polarity” is an awesome song with the start n stop beginning and then over the blast beats and we get some weird bass or guitar phase shifter effect a few times.  I feel like I am in a computer game at this point.  Really original sounds and then Mike doing a duet with a female vocalist as both lay down some clean vocals.  Spectacular moment. There are then some middle eastern instrumentation causing trouble as the clean vocals come back in and now piped in louder in the mix as they take center stage.  Then Mike does some layered in growling and then the start and stop moments and blasting, with the phaser bass noises come in and the song pretty much ends as it began.  Terrific track.

Although there are only 6 songs Azure Emote packs so much into these songs, but my gripe comes at the album closer, at over 11 minutes, “Solitary Striving” is an instrumental.  It has ambience and a lot of atmosphere, but for the album to end with this track I felt a tad letdown, seeing how the prior 5 songs are all insanely amazing.  I am not a huge fan of instrumentals to begin with and to save the longest song to place at the end without vocals, I would have chopped the tune in half and added some vocals.  Regardless of that I love The Third Perspective.  As I have said for years Azure Emote are one of the most original bands out there.  They sound like no one and no one sounds like them.  Seems almost like an impossibility in today’s ever expanding musical realms, but Azure Emote have been at this for years.

The production, soundscapes and instrumentation are so incredibly immersive.  I get lost in this band.  I mean that as the highest compliment.  Then you have Mike crafting another brilliant cover-one of the true illustrative artists to this day. Azure Emote’s The Third Perspective is mind-boggling entertaining which shifts from death metal, black metal, atmospheric and mystical dark metal in a blink of an eye and makes no apologies.  Fantastic album!

 

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