Hailing from Quebec, Canada, the youngsters in Pronostic are a technical/melodic death metal band trying their hand at adding a sort of  Black Dahlia Murder/Arsis/Allegaeon sound to modern almost deathcore/death metal that’s intricate and busy, but has a few chops and plenty of skill. The thing is, it’s about 5 years too late. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the 7 songs and one intro on this EP at all, especially as a self released effort; its got a slick, polished production, oodles of skill, lots of shredding, a dash of Canadian technicality, and the requisite dual vocals (screams and growls), and normally I’d eat this up, but in 2013, this actually sounds a bit dated.

It’s not for lack of effort or energy though, as these guys have it in spades, but I have literally heard everything on this EP before. I mean first it was bands like All Shall Perish and Antagony adding some flourish to deathcore, then the likes of Woe of Tyrants and A Plea For Purging, then a horde of bands from Mirror of Dead Faces and Through the Eyes of the Dead and Inferi through to Fit for An Autopsy and The Modern Age Slavery, all doing this blistering semi death metal/semi deathcore with solos thing and Pronostic are right there in that undefinable pack.

Granted, Pronostic do their thing well, and with lots of shredding solos and sass (for example, the EPs centerpiece, the 6 minute “Execution” is chock full of solos), and they do catch my ear here and there (“Hope for Nothing”),  and certainly seem to be adding a little more complexity to the mix (the promising title track), but I’d have a hard time telling these guys apart from the countless other bands of this style. I mean listen to the opening riff of 7th track, “Psychosis” and tell me that has not been done a 1000 times in the genre? Still, there is a passion, potential and skill set here that’s worth hanging their hat on, if they can just branch out and add something to this style, anything that makes it not sound like the 100th Black Dahlia Murder clone. I’ll stay tuned.

[Visit the band's website]

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