Detestor comes to us from the Italian metal scene with a heavy, death influenced sound. This 5-piece band has forged an original style with the "Red Sand" offering. Most of the music is guitar driven, in a hard extreme style that along with the bass leads to this being quite a heavy album at times. The notion of consistancy is one that brings to Detestor their original sound. While attempting to maintain that heavy sound, they mix in melodic elements and provide a variety of riff changes, and time alterations, that tend to make for an impressive technical album, but at various points cause a significant loss in the emotion of the album.
The vocals have a variety of forms to suit the mood of the music as required. From a harsh growl-like voice to a higher melodic singing the vocals really help bring this album to life. The music is very dependant on the vocals, it would tend to fall a little flat otherwise. The riffs are strong, different, and varied, but there is just something missing until the vocals appear. Relating back to the technical nature of the album, this result may also be from the wish to have very rigid transitions rather than ones that flow. Segments of the music just don't seem to fit together correctly at times, although at other times they flow seemlessy into each other making for some extraordinary segments.
Overall "Red Sand" is a fairly average album. It is very listenable, and the band demonstrates a decent musical ability. At times, such as in the chorus of "Screams", the melodic component really shines through producing an amazing sound. The general feeling I have is that the production of this album was rushed. Detestor has all the necessary parts to make an excellent album, but somewhere in the transition from their minds to the CD something was lost.
However, since there wasn't much generally unappealing about the album, and not much else to complain about, this review should end on a positive note saying that Detestor's "Red Sand" is an original sounding, and good entry in the metal scene.
Detestor is: Jaiko - Voices & Programming Computer Paolo - Rhythm & Melodic Guitar Niki - Rhythm Guitar & Back Vocals Ale - Bass & Back Vocals Rigel - Drums Contact: Dracma Records c/o Carlo Ortolano Via Banfo 24-C 0155 Torino Italy Voice 0039-11-2483002 Fax 0039-11-2483068 Email dracma@ipsnet.it
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