On the Concealers Daath kinda overdid it with the technicality and the complexity of songs. They all seem cluttered with too many riffs. And it's too bad, because most of the riffs are good, but the listener doesn't have time to appreciate them, when suddenly another riff comes in and then another and so on. Daath - The Concealers review: Daath return after dropping their industrial influenes and deliver a decent if not brilliant effort, showing that with a little more focus and ambition they still have the talent to release a brilliant album.
Given that DAATH's first full-length, 'The Hinderers' was a well-intended, yet ultimately directionless and obviously pieced together foray into the blood-red waters of hybrid-metal, one that even the band themselves would rather see take a dirtnap (let's see who picks up on this one), I'm not going spend too much dwelling on said disc. I will say that it was at least a decent effort that showed a band with the potential to live up to the hype which was thrust upon them. Well, it may have taken a year and a half, a new singer ( Sean Z), the loss of keyboardist Mike Kameron (and with him almost any trace of industrial influence) and the procurement of Kevin Talley's (ex- CHIMAIRA, ex- DYING FETUS, et al.) fulltime services, but through it all, the real DAATH has arrived. 'The Concealers' sticks out from the current crop of metal albums in the way that 'Rust In Peace' stuck out almost two decades ago. That's not to say the two records sound anything alike, but DAATH guitarists Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler are well on their way to becoming the Mustaine/ Friedman of their time. My comparison comes from the fact that, like the MEGADETH classic, 'The Concealers' employs a highly skilled twin guitar attack that delivers a blistering tour de force of riffing and soloing, but in a way that puts the steak before the sizzle.
In other words, the duo place far more focus on the song itself, instead of showboating it like the lads in DRAGONFORCE might. Also, much like 'DETH juiced up their thrash/speed metal roots and took a step beyond their peers, so too does DAATH with modern American metal (breakdown-free, thank Odin), death and melo-death. The MEGADETH/ DAATH simile ends, however, when you look at the roads the two bands have traveled and see that these promising upstarts have a long ways to go before reaching the song-smithing peak that Mr. Mustaine was sitting atop of back in the day. They'll no doubt reach that point someday as the relentless 'Sharpen The Blades', which allows Sean Z's mostly audible and angry-as- Corey-Taylor-wished-he-was vocals to lay down meaty hooks atop some blistering riffage or the dark and dynamic 'The Worthless' prove. A unique blend of proggish folk, melodic black and that little twist of DAATH on 'The Unbinding Truth' makes said tune one of the album's most memorable.
While the band's multi-faceted approach, which finds devastating throat-slicers like 'Incestuous Amplification' and 'Wilting On The Vine' oddly placed amongst the passable keyboard interlude 'Duststorm' and DIMMU BORGIR-styled 'Of Poisoned Sorrows', nearly all eleven of these tracks have earned their way onto the album. Individually, all five members of DAATH have the chops to fill this entire album with ego-stroking displays of their own talents, but they don't. In fact, this is a more of a calculated, determined and focused 'band' effort than many produced by musicians of lesser ilk. The overall delivery may not be what it could, and DAATH does lack the hard-earned experience that comes from ten-plus years of dogging it out, but they've found their footing on that proverbial ladder; let the climbing begin. Author: Ryan Ogle Posted in. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook.
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As they arrive at the third album of an increasingly erratic career, the operative word to describe the trajectory of futuristic death metal band Daath has been 'change' if not outright 'turmoil.' It all began with the independent obscurity of their first album, 2004's Futility, which paved the way by tortuous means to their being anointed for potential greatness when their second album, 2007's The Hinderers, was released by the world's most powerful heavy metal label, Roadrunner, before bringing about the lateral move of having their third disc, 2009's The Concealers, licensed to the perhaps the less resourceful but certainly more metal-focused Century Media label. Thing is, the last step in this course would be no cause for concern were it not for the preceding ejection of the band's founding keyboardist, major songwriter, and primary visionary, Mike Kameron. With him goes not only the group's daringly eclectic and oftentimes very innovative use of orchestrated synths and keys behind and betwixt their vicious death metal attack, but what was arguably Daath's single most distinguishing hallmark: the mystical teachings of the Jewish Kabbalah permeating their lyrics. In their place, the reconfigured Daath have saddled their new songs with perfectly acceptable, but ultimately formulaic, heavy metal topics of generalized negativity framed in violent imagery (all of them capably growled by new vocalist Sean Z). And without the symphonic flourishes, electronic beats, or industrial properties previously executed by Kameron, The Concealers projects a far less groundbreaking brand of modern death/thrash - regardless of the insistently textured and still quite imaginative (relative to the competition) contributions of rhythm guitarist Eyal Levi, particularly 'Self-Corruption Manifesto,' 'The Unbinding Truth,' and 'Wilting on the Vine.'
In fact, only the synth-driven interlude 'Duststorm,' the synthetic rhythms backing '.Of Poisoned Arrows,' and the metronome-like precision of drummer Kevin Talley's hands and feet hark back to those once dominant industrial flavors. All this being said, if there's any one component still guaranteed to keep Daath in the American extreme metal game, it's the solo guitar work of Emil Werstler - a human highlight reel who single-handedly rescues even the dullest song with his astonishing balance of taste and virtuosity, while pushing the aforementioned standouts (plus the semi-black metal flurry of 'Day of Endless Night,' where he ironically shows off jazz chops) to the next level. In the end, it will likely be his and Levi's formidable six-string interplay that will get Daath past this latest, radical shift of musical direction to the fourth stage of their so-far eventful career, whatever that ends up sounding like. Eduardo Rivadavia.