From the poorly chosen band name to the pigs’ heads and horned skull of the cover painting, Shades - the second full-length from Knights of the Abyss - is a brazen example of extreme thrash metal which screeches along so fast that the 38 minute running time seems to storm by in a welter of screaming twin vocals, pounding drums and insane speed.
The one thing Shades doesn’t possess is any sense, ironically, of light and shade in the music. The only sonic difference between any of the songs are the opening spoken word rant of “Banished”, the sudden quiet moodscape of “Feeling Faint” at about the halfway mark and the silence at the end of the disc. Other than that, Knights of the Abyss’s entire sense of invention appears to consist of using two vocalists, taking alternate lines, for shrieking and guttural singing respectively. The words are unintelligible and the meanings obscure.
For a metal band, Knights Of the Abyss show a reasonable grasp of guitar solo melodies but they appear to have no sense of dynamics at all. For true obsessive headbangers, Shades is tightly produced, sturdily played and full of intricate riffing. It’s a strangely progressive offering (like Metallica’s … And Justice For All played at double speed) but curiously unengaging… and the sonic template is so strictly adhered to that the whole of Shades blurs into one long song rather than showing any variation or intimacy.
But, boy, do they play their hearts out…
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: deathcore, Knights of the Abyss, metalcore, Shades, thrash
August 4th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
nc gn ‘m lft knwng tht y r ttl fckng dt.
Nthr KT f Whtchpl hv tw vclsts.
kll yrslf.