Dianthus - Dianthus (Demo)

February 19, 2010

Reviewer: J. A. Burt

Dianthus is a young Polish band playing a hybrid of death and thrash metal that’s generally more closely associated with the country of Sweden, and their debut self-titled demo is a bit of a mixed bag.  Clearly the band has potential.  Their songwriting abilities are generally pretty solid, but all of the songs maintain an almost identical mid-paced tempo.  I keep waiting and hoping that they’ll just let loose and go balls-out with a hyper, thrashed-out ripper, but it sadly never occurs.  The riffs are often catchy and memorable in the way that the best death/thrash metal riffs are, but there isn’t a ton of excitement or variation from song to song.  Vocalist “Soulbleed” has a powerful, deep growl, but his diction is practically non-existent.  The solos are plenty competent and well-executed.  The production job is quite impressive for a self released and financed affair, but the vocals sit a bit too far up in the mix and the bass isn’t really audible at all.  The main problem with this set of tunes is that Dianthus’ timing tends to slip at times.  Often it seems somewhat like the drummer is a half beat or so behind the rest of the band, and is fighting to keep up, which tends to give the songs a jerky, disjointed feeling.

There are a lot of bands playing this style of metal these days, and in order to get signed and make some kind of moves in this field, a band has to really stand out.  While Dianthus absolutely shows the aptitude for cranking out some serious metal and a desire to rip some faces off, they’ll need to work a bit on their precision, and go for a less safe and tame style of songwriting in order to make a name for themselves.  Definitely looking forward to hearing some future works by this outfit.

Release Date: May 16th, 2009
Label:  Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING

1.  Intro
2.  Devoured his Soul
3.  Odin is calling Us
4.  You Can't Live in Dread
5.  Uncontrolled Hatred
6.  Eternal War
7.  Inflicting Suffering on You
8.  Victims of my Aggression

Total playing time: 24:37

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