February 27, 2010

Reviewer: Chris

Martriden hails from the cold, dismal, dark wastelands of…Montana. While it might seem I’m taking the piss out of them for that, I’m sincere in saying that of late this is the second band I’ve encountered from Montana that is pretty damn impressive. Whatever they’re putting in the water out there, pass some of it to Chicago, would ya? The Encyclopedia Metallum describes them as a black/death hybrid, which is a decent attribution, though I’m not so sure about the black metal tag. Honestly, while the vocal delivery is “black” in form, the comparison might well stop there and drift more into the arena of technical death/thrash ala Control Denied perhaps. Any way you wish to label them they’re just amazing!

Usually when I see keyboards in any band I’m a bit put off (yes, very discriminatory I admit), but Kyle Howard doesn’t try to be Jordan Rudess; as a background accompaniment the keys are a nice round-out to an already thick wall of sound. Also engaging is the topic of the band’s latest  CD, Encounter the Monolith, which centers around space-cosmos-galaxy compositions, which the music perfectly describes! The song “Heywood R. Floyd,” a composition about the Space 2001 Odyssey character, and the musical landscape is nothing short of brilliant! I rarely ever say something is brilliant, but this song is an absolute movement of the mind and soul. When you engage with a song like this it’s worth your valuable time to tap into your imagination’s reserve and sift through the debris for something to help cart you through the voyage. Nevermore does that for me and Martriden has taken me on a similar journey. I can honestly say I would pick up this CD and enjoy it far more than the last three or four Dream Theater albums, but hey, that’s just me.

As I said, Michael Cook’s vocals can be deemed black metal if you so desire such a tagline, but for my money the harsh delivery is just that - harsh vocal delivery. While I can seriously entertain the volume of proponents for the BM label, I will go on public record here and now and state that if this is black metal it has to be one of the best offerings in the genre since Vinterland’s Welcome My Last Chapter, which is my favorite black metal album of all time! Encounter the Monolith is one of the CD’s I plan on bringing with me this week when my friend and I venture to a record store up north. I am dying for him to hear this CD by one hell of a band. I’m proud to be able to claim these guys as one of our own - the U.S. sorely needs solid metal acts to keep us in the fray at times.

The entire CD is a standout, but the aforementioned “Heywood R. Floyd,” “Discovery,” and “Human Error” are brutally powerful songs, yet all the while they retain a very technical side rarely implemented properly by many bands today. The production on this is an “A” effort all around, and I’m suddenly a casual fan of some keyboards in my music. If Martiden can sell me on keyboard work, then how can I not highly hail them?

Do yourself the biggest favor and spend your money wisely this week - buy the band’s CD and be amazed. I hope these guys put out a few more albums like this one, because if they do you’ll be hearing about them on a much grander scale than my simple praises.

Release Date: February 10, 2010
Label: Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING

1.  The Three Metamorphoses
2.  Heywood R. Floyd
3.  Discovery
4.  Human Error?
5.  Encounter the Monolith
6.  Death and Transfiguration

Total playing time: 45:00

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Martriden - Encounter the Monolith