Finally some new jams by Canadian technical death metal act Beneath The Massacre, in the form of an EP entitled Marée Noire. One would tend to think the well could have run dry with a lot of their songs but nope these guys are still alive and kicking. Two years after their second full length album Dystopia the guys in Beneath The Massacre figured that the world needs some more technical tunes to wreck havoc with.
An industrial chopping effect opens the song “The Casket You Sleep In” and once the music kicks in they are off to la-la land with down-syndrome inducing sweeps and blasts galore. The constant pounding double bass drums at the end are accompanied by a riff with a fantastic sounding sweep that closes out the song. The next track “Black Tide” continues with the sweeps against humanity and has a sick little part around a minute and a half where a sweeping arpeggio sounds as if it’s climbing a ladder yet stumbling trying to reach the top. Its moments like this where a technical death metal album amazes me. Though with guitar noodling abound, sometimes I wish their songs didn’t blur together.
“Drill Baby Drill” is a forty three second instrumental that sounds exactly like the closing of the first song with a sample of some government speech. The EP could have done without this track because their really is no point in having a filler forty three second instrumental track that sounds like the closing of a song before.
The second last track “Designed to Strangle” continues on with the same pattern as the first two tracks. Yet it goes for a more streamlined technical death metal approach and actually contains a lot of sick head bobbing riffs that come in around the one minute mark. The breakdown half way through the song is also meaty and undeniably heavy, but it only lasts for a few seconds. The last track “Anomic” is a nice little ditty that sounds exactly like the any other Beneath The Massacre tune until the industrial effect from the album opener comes in and is played over a sweet breakdown that eventually draws the EP to a close.
Marée Noire is a good EP from a good band but Beneath The Massacre is just playing the same thing over and over again without branching into new concepts and different ideas. Sometimes it’s okay to keep the same thing but when all of your albums sound exactly the same, one would tend to think its time to try something new.
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Spot on Jesse.
on Dec 14th, 2010 at 06:10Thanks again bro.
on Dec 14th, 2010 at 15:46I think apart of this bands problem is self inflicted, in that they are trying to bridge some techy elements into a more chaotic hardcore sound. At a largely death metal show I went to with Decapitated, Necrophagist, and other years backin 07 they were the openers and got hella pissed that only the scene kids were doing any sort of moshing. Stylistically my friends I was with were unimpressed by the blend of styles, and particularly the core attitude. I later talked to some Metal Blade west coast honcho and his buddies in the bar and they also mentioned the difficulty of the tough sell. Everybodies ears perked up during the sweeps and whatnot, but its not enough to entice the majority unfortunately.
I’ve seen them again and I’ve always seen the same response, they want to get the crowd moshing and windmilling, and those that do make ’em happy but those of us like myself that would rather enjoy a beer with some buds and watch the performance get the angry face. I own all their stuff, and there are some enjoyable tunes, but nearly everything sounds the same, because it is haha. Your review is too right mate. Not saying I don’t headband or windmill the hair, far from it. I just prefer to do so to some proper groovy riffs and excellent technical rythems. I was probably the only fag who growl-houted along with Covan/Sauron during their sets haha. I’m such a fanboi yo!
on Dec 14th, 2010 at 19:10there are more sweeps/taps going on here than a room full of morse code knowledgeable janitors. har har har :-)
on Dec 14th, 2010 at 21:36lol
on Dec 16th, 2010 at 06:32