uranium music review of new dtf record.
Every metal scene has its frontrunners and its underdogs. While the most visible bands gain attention through notorious frills or bold innovation, too many times is a dedicated, blue-collar band overlooked despite their obvious dedication to quality metal music. Chicago's Dead To Fall have been bridging the hardcore and death metal communities for over five years, and not once has their zeal for fusion interfered with their fundamental understanding of hardcore and death metal traditions. With bands like Unearth and Darkest Hour sharing the Ozzfest 2004 stage, Dead To Fall already have a nationwide fanbase carved out for them. "Villainy & Virtue" is a lesson in vintage death metal, melodic death metal and hardcore for the modern metal listener.
It's been almost five years since the release of 1999's "Everything I Touch Falls To Pieces", and longtime fans are no doubt curious how "Villainy & Virtue" compares, given the band's frequent member changes. Have they shifted their focus towards hardcore or death metal? The answer is neither and both. While most metalcore acts take queues from the streamlined, hooky approach of bands like Killswitch Engage, what makes Dead To Fall stand out is their gritty, retro hardcore foundation. Their albums have a genuine live feel to them, and "Villainy & Virtue" is no different; the guitars have been thickened and the vocals are more prominant, but that loose, live feel is still there. Jon Hunt's vocals bolster the band's hardcore overtones with toughman growls, shouts, and throaty death metal grunts, while the chameleon guitars glide through a variety of death, black, hardcore, thrash, and melodic death riffing. The scope of the band's melodic inclinations have grown ten-fold, drawing inspiration from the earliest of melodic innovators in the death metal community, including Entombed, Dissection, Death, enriching a sound that previously hinged on mid/late 90's Gothenburg melodic death a-la-In Flames and Arch Enemy.
Dead To Fall have always been thorough song writers, focusing a song's momentum on dynamic tempo shifts and riff variations. The dynamic and non-nuclear approach to song progression reminds me in many ways of Misery Signals, who intersperse chuggy breakdowns with sudden tempo shifts and layered guitar melody. There are plenty of breakdowns, many of which remind me of Martyr AD's style, while the guitars balance the rhythmics with both twin guitar leads and subtle, low-end death metal melody. There are chant-a-long choruses, punk-tinged melodies, and everything else you've come to expect out of Dead To Fall. While hardcore/death crossover bands like Glass Casket and Dying Fetus focus their brutality on chugs and grooves, Dead To Fall draws from death metal melody as a means of fusion and melodic variation. The key difference between Dead To Fall and your average, cookie-cutter metalcore act is that Dead To Fall take the time to put their own spin on riffs they borrow from the metal greats, rather than recycling an At The Gates riff or a Hatebreed breakdown and calling it original.
Some fans may be disappointed by the lack of progression from their earlier material, while still others will be disappointed by how brief the album feels. Regardless, this album will ultimately make you better understand exactly what Dead To Fall are trying to do. "Villainy & Virtue" is a glowing example of effective fusion, sculpting extreme metal that will appeal to a multitude of discerning fans. It may not be the fastest, nor the most brutal thing you've heard this year, but this album is song writing lesson for metal fans everywhere, demonstrating how to mesh opposing influences rather than struggling with polarity. Fans of Darkest Hour, Unearth, and other thrash/death hardcore hybrids will love this album, as will the death metal afficionados looking for something a little more eclectic.
It's been almost five years since the release of 1999's "Everything I Touch Falls To Pieces", and longtime fans are no doubt curious how "Villainy & Virtue" compares, given the band's frequent member changes. Have they shifted their focus towards hardcore or death metal? The answer is neither and both. While most metalcore acts take queues from the streamlined, hooky approach of bands like Killswitch Engage, what makes Dead To Fall stand out is their gritty, retro hardcore foundation. Their albums have a genuine live feel to them, and "Villainy & Virtue" is no different; the guitars have been thickened and the vocals are more prominant, but that loose, live feel is still there. Jon Hunt's vocals bolster the band's hardcore overtones with toughman growls, shouts, and throaty death metal grunts, while the chameleon guitars glide through a variety of death, black, hardcore, thrash, and melodic death riffing. The scope of the band's melodic inclinations have grown ten-fold, drawing inspiration from the earliest of melodic innovators in the death metal community, including Entombed, Dissection, Death, enriching a sound that previously hinged on mid/late 90's Gothenburg melodic death a-la-In Flames and Arch Enemy.
Dead To Fall have always been thorough song writers, focusing a song's momentum on dynamic tempo shifts and riff variations. The dynamic and non-nuclear approach to song progression reminds me in many ways of Misery Signals, who intersperse chuggy breakdowns with sudden tempo shifts and layered guitar melody. There are plenty of breakdowns, many of which remind me of Martyr AD's style, while the guitars balance the rhythmics with both twin guitar leads and subtle, low-end death metal melody. There are chant-a-long choruses, punk-tinged melodies, and everything else you've come to expect out of Dead To Fall. While hardcore/death crossover bands like Glass Casket and Dying Fetus focus their brutality on chugs and grooves, Dead To Fall draws from death metal melody as a means of fusion and melodic variation. The key difference between Dead To Fall and your average, cookie-cutter metalcore act is that Dead To Fall take the time to put their own spin on riffs they borrow from the metal greats, rather than recycling an At The Gates riff or a Hatebreed breakdown and calling it original.
Some fans may be disappointed by the lack of progression from their earlier material, while still others will be disappointed by how brief the album feels. Regardless, this album will ultimately make you better understand exactly what Dead To Fall are trying to do. "Villainy & Virtue" is a glowing example of effective fusion, sculpting extreme metal that will appeal to a multitude of discerning fans. It may not be the fastest, nor the most brutal thing you've heard this year, but this album is song writing lesson for metal fans everywhere, demonstrating how to mesh opposing influences rather than struggling with polarity. Fans of Darkest Hour, Unearth, and other thrash/death hardcore hybrids will love this album, as will the death metal afficionados looking for something a little more eclectic.