Emeth at Myspace

Emeth (which, according to Wikipedia, is Hebrew for “truth-seeker” and is the name of a devil-worshipping character from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe) are a death metal band just starting to dip their toes into more progressive, technical metal.  It’s no surprise, as their guitarists are total pros, and this album has some of the sickest metal drumming I’ve heard.

I usually don’t focus too much on drums, but it’s impossible not to notice them here.  There’s an assault of insanely fast beats throughout the album – seriously, this guy must have four arms and three feet!  If he’s not rocking the double-bass, he’s rolling on everything else; yet he always manages to back off to give a good riff a little breathing room.  (Usually, when a band constantly uses fast double-bass it drives me crazy because it’s intense but gets boring fast; this is some of the most tasteful double-bass I’ve heard.  Check out “Anochi Kofer” for an example of this.)

Everything else on the album falls into place – really, these guys are pros, and while the album isn’t especially brutal, it has some top-notch songs.  One of my favorite tracks is “Folly and Weakness”, which starts out as your standard chugger, but ends with some rockin’ harmonic flourishes, key changes, and even a switch to half the tempo that works so perfectly (and is used so sparingly) it puts every shitty hardcore breakdown to shame.  None of the (few) solos really stand out, but there are plenty of memorable riffs – and you’ll keep coming back for the insane drumming.

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 @ 4:20 pm Death Metal, Technical Metal
RSS 2.0 Trackback