ALETHEIAN SUFFER FROM A.D.D. WITH DYING VINE
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 4:34pm by Vince Neilstein
Aletheian can certainly play their instruments, and there are some pretty cool musical passages on their Ironclad Recordings / Metal Blade debut Dying Vine, out today — but unfortunately their musical ambitions end up being like a gun to the foot. To be sure, the seeming ease at which these four dudes have honed their crafts is pretty impressive; The Pennsylvania-based quartet work their way around a progressive death metal shell, weaving in elements of melodeath, progressive metal, and classic metal into their multi-pronged attack. But despite the quality of the ingredients, 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 ends up equaling something less than four as Dying Vine — which was independently recorded and released in 2005 — falls short in the songs department. The album ends up being a somewhat tedious 40-minute listen, as each of the ten songs suffers from a severe case of ADD that makes it rather difficult to pinpoint any of them as standouts. I totally “get” the idea of not being bound by writing within a traditional song-structure, but the specific way Aletheian have chosen to defy convention is ultimately to their detriment as there is neither much of anything to latch onto or any groundbreaking, new ideas. Some moments offer promise; the solo in “Open Grave,” middle section of “Call to Arms” and Opethian classical acoustics of “How Could I” (among other songs), but those moments are fleeting and far between. Where bands like Opeth and Dream Theater have done this with great success, as have bands like At the Gates and Death on the other side of the coin — all of whom have no doubt influenced Aletheian — Dying Vine just doesn’t hit the right balance and ends up a frustrating, wandering trip in a large, expansive metropolis.
-VN
(one and a half out of five horns)
yeah “how could i…” is definitely a cynic cover. i think you lose a little metal credibility (metability?) for that oversight. anyway, aletheian are pretty good in the limited christian progressive death metal realm. they aren’t superior to believer or becoming the archetype or anything, but they certainly deserve at least two horns for their efforts. at least they don’t go for that way overdone norma jean sound of today.
they aren’t the greatest, but its definitely still solid.
Paragraph breaks are your friend.
I grew up where Aletheian are from and got into them when they were still known as Crutch. Their “…hope prevails” CD is fucking insane, IMO far beyond anything they’ve released under the name Aletheian.
That said, I still find their later work killer. Apolutrosis was better than Dying Vine, at least the older (poorly mixed) version of DV I’ve heard.
While I disagree that they have musical ADD. I still think their effort seems “forced”. The drummer is content to ride along with the music and never gets as technical as the guitar. The singer does the same, rarely showing any real passion for what he is singing; it’s like a metal poetry reading. The guitar riffs are cool, but nothing new. It deserves the 2 horns.
I’m sick of all this “nothing new” bullshit. What drives me crazy about metal nowadays is that there’s rarely a decent metal band that doesn’t scream. I’ve been a metal fan for the past 5 or so years, and now, screaming is as boring as hell to me. There’s just too much of it in the metal business. A little fucking diversity, please.
Don’t get me wrong, there will always be gods like At The Gates and Children of Bodom that NEED that blood-curdling scream with their heavy-as-fuck riffs, but maybe newer metal bands should try something a little different. There’s more to metal than almost-incomprehensible vocals.