Fun to listen to but lacking in essence
Thrashy semi-melodic death metal is more or less the official national metal genre of my own home country Denmark, so listening to the Polish band Empatic's 2010 album, Gods of Thousand Souls, was almost like listening to bands from home like Hatesphere or Aphyxion.
Empatic benefits from a good sense of urgent pace and heavy-hitting structure. All ten tracks on Gods of Thousand Souls are basically begging to be headbanged to, but like many similar bands they seem to be lacking in the same departments. What they have in flow the lack in memorability. Their hooks and riffs are easily forgettable, and though their playing ability serves them well it's tough to recall or pin any one point of the album that stands out. Consistency is essential in a well-crafted album, but in a way the band's debut album is a bit too consistent to the point where all the songs simply blend together in a writhing mass of easy-going death-thrash grooves.
Empatic benefits from a good sense of urgent pace and heavy-hitting structure. All ten tracks on Gods of Thousand Souls are basically begging to be headbanged to, but like many similar bands they seem to be lacking in the same departments. What they have in flow the lack in memorability. Their hooks and riffs are easily forgettable, and though their playing ability serves them well it's tough to recall or pin any one point of the album that stands out. Consistency is essential in a well-crafted album, but in a way the band's debut album is a bit too consistent to the point where all the songs simply blend together in a writhing mass of easy-going death-thrash grooves.
"The band puts the spotlight on groove, heaviness and aggression because those three elements are easy to do and demand an instant and noticable reaction both in themselves and in an audience."
Their ruthlessness and tight rhythmsection are definitive strengths, but only to a degree. The focus on clear-cut groove and pace becomes a bit too routinely in its execution. Tracks like False Friend and The Game have a tendency to start out really heavy only to mellow out during the middle before finally coming to a form of ill-prepared climax at the end, being symbolic of the basic form of the album. Gods of Thousand Souls feels a bit too much like a debut overall: The band puts the spotlight on groove, heaviness and aggression because those three elements are easy to do and demand an instant and noticable reaction both in themselves and in an audience. But it lacks direction and texture to properly benefit from the pacing.
Empatic has two settings: Crushingly heavy and melodically flowy. If a track isn't clearly one or the other, it will definitely switch from one to the other like at the press of a button. Gods of Thousand Souls is an honest and down to earth piece of death metal without being blindingly special. It doesn't seem like Empatic are trying to create something new and exciting, but rather to make an album that is - at that moment - fun to listen to. For some reason they decided to include a cover of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's Enola Gay. I don't know if they thought it was funny or something, but it just takes you out of the experience.
Empatic has two settings: Crushingly heavy and melodically flowy. If a track isn't clearly one or the other, it will definitely switch from one to the other like at the press of a button. Gods of Thousand Souls is an honest and down to earth piece of death metal without being blindingly special. It doesn't seem like Empatic are trying to create something new and exciting, but rather to make an album that is - at that moment - fun to listen to. For some reason they decided to include a cover of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's Enola Gay. I don't know if they thought it was funny or something, but it just takes you out of the experience.
7/10
Released in 2010 by Wydawnictwo Muzyczne Psycho
Links
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Empatic OFFICIAL SITE
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Empatic OFFICIAL SITE
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