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The Breathing Process "In Waking: Divinity" |
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Written by The 616
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Thursday, 31 January 2008 |
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Black Metal has never been a genre I've felt too compelled to follow, except when keyboards are involved. Something about synthesizers and keyboards tend to make a bland metal offering worth checking out. I love layers, I suppose. So it's very rare when a band says "For Fans of Dimmu Borgir and Emperor" that I feel the need to listen to it. I usually just shake my head and move on to the next album. Unless of course, the packaging makes me think twice. I'll be honest, the album artwork for The Breathing Process's new release, "In Waking: Divinity" is the main reason I felt I should give it a listen. And I'm glad I did. From the album's opening instrumental all the way through to the climactic album closer, The Treasonist, The Breathing Process blasts through powerful, intense music and doesn't look back. The vocals are ridiculous and intense, the guitars are memorable, something I can't say for most bands in this genre. Standout tracks like Somnium, The Treasonist and Dear Antigone make the second half of the record the most memorable and almost make you want to skip through the instrumentals just to get to them, but this is an album that comes as a whole package...not something to be skipped through to pick and choose, but an album that should be swallowed en masse. Besides, there are a ton of little gems strewn throughout this recording. I can't stress enough just how great the vocals are on this disc. John Lafreniere's growls are almost unhuman. In terms of memorable extreme metal vocalists I would put it in line with Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, or Marcus Biscoff of Heaven Shall Burn.
While I won't say this doesn't have plenty of black metal thrown into
it, I will say it's a cut above most of the black metal I've come
across in the last few years, and even go so far as to say this record
does more for me than the last Dimmu Borgir record (it's probably the
breakdowns...but don't qoute me on that). I think part of the magic
behind the mesmerizing sound that The Breathing Process creates is in
the expert songwriting. These guys write like they've been doing this
for a very, very long time. The guitars blend together with a definite
level of maturity you don't usually hear in young American metal bands.
There's no sacrificing structure just for the sake of adding heaviness,
some catchy parts or even adding breakdowns just to appease the
breakdown-crazy masses (which I'll admit to being a part of). My
favorite song here by far is Somnium, a slower and slightly more
melodic piece that features some great layering and again those
absolutely razorsharp vocals that it seems I just can't get enough of.
The band takes their time here and makes sure they don't leave anything
out, which a perfectionist like me can certainly appreciate. These guys
do it all. There are solos, there are breakdowns, there are singing
parts, there are amazing dualing guitar melodies, and there is just all
out heaviness...something I find I look for more and more in bands
these days, as the quest to be the heaviest new kids in on the block
gets more and more competitive. I can say with confidence though that
The Breathing Process are currently head and shoulders ahead of the
pack, and I haven't been this impressed with a debut album in a very
long time. Hopefully they keep up the good work, and hopefully we'll be
hearing more from them in the near future.
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