March 13, 2010

Reviewer: Kesh

How can I not say that this album isn’t very interesting? While the Dimebag Darrell style guitars and hybridized Pantera/Sepultura feel of the actual music are somewhat interesting, the vocalist would be better suited for a Dream Theater style band. This creates an audio environment that fails to keep my attention. The album starts off strong, deceiving you that you might actually be listening to something worth your while, but it very quickly begins to disappoint, spiraling down into a rabbit hole so deep that I don’t even think Alice would be able to find her way out.

I personally found this album almost painful to listen to in spots, creating a feeling of dread as each song ended and a new one began. Okay, it’s really not that bad… the band itself is worth the listen if you can get past the vocalist’s indecision of whether to do clean or growling vocals. But it’s very hard to block out the vocal track when it’s beefed up so much more than all the accompanying instruments.

I could sit here and bore you with the 101 reasons not to buy this album, but I think in the end, that would be a waste of both your time and mine. Instead, I am going to try and explain my feeling of why these guys should either switch genres or find a new vocalist that would be better paired with the music.  I don’t want to come off as being totally harsh and unforgiving with these guys - far from it - I just honestly don’t think that Caio Duarte’s singing style meshes well with the music. While they sound good individually, they don’t sound good together.

The exception to all my complaints about this album falls on the track “Bloodish Eyes” where somehow, the band seems to have melded itself together to make the vocals and the music work well together. But this one track is not enough to float the entire album, which makes the offering fall short of its true potential. And let’s face it, one song does not an album make. Metal is less forgiving for a bad album than rock or pop is because the fans expect more from a metal album than fans of other genres of music. But also seeing that this is the first album from Dynahead, perhaps their next album will be more cohesive and more like “Bloodish Eyes” and less like Sepultura with James LaBrie from Dream Theater on vocals trying to sing growl vocals.

Or maybe I just don’t get their style. Either way, I didn’t really like this particular album very much.

Release Date:  2008
Label: Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING

1.  Clockwork I
2.  Layers of Days
3.  Virtual Twin
4.  Tactile Haven
5.  Join and Surrender
6.  Bloodish Eyes
7.  Depart Now
8.  Do you Feel Cleansed?
9.  Vorsicht!
10.  The Starry Messenger

Total playing time: 48:57

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Dynahead - Antigen