Forte Ruin – Forte Ruin

Hailing from one of the melodic death metal capitals of the world, Finland, Forte Ruin’s self-titled EP is the band’s first release. At its core, the EP is a solid effort that takes to heart the ideals of melodeath. On the surface, however, it struggles from the same problems that the subgenre faces: clean vocals. Combining harsh vocals with singing is almost never effective, and melodic death metal bands have a poor track record of doing it successfully. Forte Ruin is no exception. It takes their music from being aggressive and serious in tone, to sounding more like a metalcore or pop-punk band. It’s bad enough when clean vocals are unfittingly added to a song, but worse when they make the band fall outside the realm of metal. The bands that excel at combining these two sounds are the ones that use clean vocals to enhance the epicness of their sound (Wintersun or Ensiferum, for example).  

The worst part about this is the fact that it hides what the band does well. One great example is near the end of “Alienated Humanity”, where there is some incredibly tasteful lead playing, aided by a fantastically clean tone. Another standout moment is the opening of “45 Days”, where the band’s growler unleashes a wicked scream amidst a flurry of double bass. This song similarly has lead playing that is a cut above what most other bands are doing (at least until it devolves into something weirder). These killer sections are by no means few and far between, but it is never long before the clean vocals come in and ruin (pardon the pun) things. And to be fair to their singer, he isn’t bad. He just kills the vibe of this style. Though I was never the biggest melodeath fan, I grew to appreciate it more as I explored it more. These days however, I find bands forget where the subgenre came from, and this ultimately hurts the experience for me. 

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Highlight

"45 Days"

Final Rating

3.1/5 or 62%. 

Written by Scott

Númenor – Sword And Sorcery

If ever there was a subgenre with tons of potential waiting to be excavated, it would be symphonic black/power metal. It’s no secret that both black metal and power metal are awesome when saturated in endless layers of cheesy keyboards, and as power metal bands begin experimenting more and more with harsh vocals, it seems only natural that this subgenre would gain more prominence. This is where Númenor, from Serbia, comes in. “Sword And Sorcery” is their second-full length record, and is the equivalent of taking Rhapsody of Fire’s music and adding harsh high-pitched, raspy vocals. Amazingly, however, the band doesn’t stop there. They also feature clean singing (both male and female) that rival anything a power metal band could do. In general, there is a much greater proportion of harsh vocals, but the clearer sections are certainly quite prominent on tracks like “Dragonheart”.

Musically, Númenor is pretty authentic in their Rhapsody worship. In fact, since the only primary difference is the singing, you’d almost think you’re listening to a band like Dark Moor, who similarly apes Rhapsody. This means a thunderous cacophony of double bass, aided by soaring keyboard melodies and heavy, chugging guitars. There is little deviation away from this standard formula, though compared to their Italian counterparts, Númenor’s symphonics and shredding are decidedly less classically influenced. 

One area where Númenor does differ from other power metal bands is that they’ve kept “Sword And Sorcery” down to the bare essentials. This album barely exceeds half of the length of a typical power metal album, and benefits greatly from this. As a result, it feels more energetic and less indulgent. In large part, the length also prevents the switching between clean and harsh vocals from getting tiring. Though both are performed at a high level, so few bands can really make combining the two styles work, and to be completely honest, Nùmenor would benefit from just sticking with one or the other. Overall though, there is no doubt that this band is a unique entity in the power metal scene. Their enthusiasm for this style of music (and Rhapsody in particular) shines through in their performance, and ultimately makes “Sword And Sorcery” an enjoyable release.

Be sure to check out and like Númenor on Facebook!

Highlights

"Dragonheart"

"Dragon of Erebor"

Final Rating

4.0/5 or 80%. 

Written by Scott

Oneuro – Deivore

“Deivore” is the debut album from Oneuro, a solo technical death metal project by Christopher Thayer. At 66 minutes, this album is an absolute monolith of a release, filled to the brim with incredibly intricate solos and riffs, tight rhythm playing, and monstrous vocals. Before that, however, “Deivore” opens with “Three Realms Broken”, a symphonic instrumental track. While this song sounds absolutely nothing like the rest of the record, it is actually the most ambitious and interesting track, as it is driven by an evocative, haunting melody. Though this album is admittedly quite bloated; the somewhat indulgent intro is actually a breath of fresh air, as there is little variation throughout the rest of the record.

Once “Omen To The Gods” begins, Oneuro’s sound becomes quite clear. Showing homage to any number of incredibly technical bands like Obscura or Neuraxis, this track easily moves from speedy bizarre harmonies, to downright brutal chugging. These latter moments show the band with more of a brutal death metal sound, which is only enhanced by the production. Indeed, this album’s sound makes the low-end crushing in its attack. By contrast, whenever Oneuro provides more melodic passages, it is the bass that shines. Technical death metal is practically heaven for bass players, and Thayer’s skills make it clear that Oneuro is no exception. His vocal performance is good, but not particularly unique. In the context of “Deivore”, growling does not seem to be important, as much of this album’s runtime focuses more on either dazzling displays of technicality, or skull-crushing breakdowns and rhythmic assaults.

While “Deivore” is clearly well executed, it does fall short from a songwriting perspective. The aforementioned harmonies are, at times, so jarring that it makes them difficult to digest. It feels like an attempt to one-up the band’s contemporaries, though in that respect it does succeed. In fact, this is an appropriate description of the direction of the record: it takes the established technical death metal formula, but often gets off track, and feels as though the songs are written to be weird for the sake of being weird. To be fair, these sections are not so pervasive that they ruin the record, but they do appear far too often. The strange, circus-like interludes in “The Roulette” provide an example of this sound; not only does this section feel out of place, but it begins to switch between the clean guitar and bass interlude and a second or two of death metal. On their own, the two sounds are fair, but when combined, they seem strange.

Taken at face value, “Deivore” is not only an interesting listen, but a respectable one. It is astounding that one individual came up with something so eccentric. Even though it doesn’t always hit the mark, and is largely devoid of memorability, there is still a lot to like here. The fusion of technical and brutal death metal is particularly interesting because so few bands can capture the traits of each subgenre and switch between them instantly this competently. If Thayer cut back on the absurdity, dropped about half the songs, and focused on keeping just the best riffs and solos, this would be a top-tier modern death metal release. Of course, that would probably defeat the initial goal of this project, but the key point is that the ingredients for success are here, they just need to be refined a little bit. 

Be sure to check out and like Oneuro on Facebook!

Highlight

"Three Realms Broken"

Final Rating

3.4/5 or 68%. 

Written by Scott