Hey metal lovers! Let’s get stoked about this fantastic mid-week release from British Columbia Groovy Prog Death Metallers The Hallowed Catharsis and their new concept EP Solar Cremation!
Released April 26, 2017
Line up on the recording of Solar Cremation –
Sean Michael – Vocals
Kyle Bains – Guitars
Kevin Emms – Drums
Nick Savoie – Bass
Chris Turner – Guitars
Current line up –
Sean Michael – Vocals
Kyle Bains – Guitars
Kevin Emms – Drums
Nick Savoie – Bass
The songwriting and riffing is very diverse. It ranges from super heavy in your face parts to cool grooves to beautiful ambient proggy sections with wonderful and tasteful bass lines. Don’t worry tech heads, there is some rad tech riffs too and even some thrashy and jazzy parts. They even have some bright sounding un-blackened riffs.
“Bad Seed” starts off the album with a curious and almost tribal sounding riff and drum beat, then then make it heavier. They give us some good grooves and in your face riffing, it flows into the second track so perfectly. This is where they bust out the real badassery. “Phototaxi” starts with an exciting techy riff and progresses to many excellent grooves and some super tasty prog section in the middle.
In “Jabberwocky” they make good use of some dissonant and very catchy riffing as well as some sweet groovy riffs
These guys also have some beautiful and feely solos. “Phototaxic” has a killer solo by Chris during a softer proggy section. The title track also has an incredible feeling solo just after 3:00 in the song. It is beautiful beyond all measure. They continue to bless us with an awesome and feely bass solo which flows wonderfully into a sick feely Jazzy solo by Kyle. The level of passion in this song is incredible.
The bass is nicely audible in every song and has a great punchy tone. Great for their groovy parts but it also sounds amazing during their kind of atmospheric proggy sections, especially in “Phototaxic” and “Solar Cremation”. He also has a nice slight grit in the tone in “Jetsam”, with really nice bass lines that totally stand out during the relatively clean guitar intro. After this they go to a riff that I can only describe as an early 2000’s high dissonant metalcore riff. Into a super powerful doomy ass riff that just makes you want to donkey know the world! It then goes to a rad kind of Jazzy bass line with cool jazzy chords in the back ground. The go back to heavy riffage and a while later revisit some more sweet Jazziness with more excellent bass lines. This section has a very uplifting feel.
The vocals are largely a cool aggressive mid and mid high tone. His lows are powerful and smooth. There is also some nice layering a good bit and the tones mixed sounds awesome. Also some cool quick high to low or low to high vocals. Displayed nicely in “Jabberwocky” and “Solar Cremation” at times too. I have to reiterate how much I like the mid scream tone! It is fucking badass. He also utilizes some almost panicked sounding talk into screams which are sometimes used in -core genres. Not always a fan, but I like the execution of it done here in “Phototaxic” and a little bit in “Jabberwocky” and “Solar Migration” for a moment. The vocals in the title track are super intense for the first 2 minutes or so before the song gets more melodic. The vocals continue to be great, but for different reasons. They are very passionate as the instruments get more melodic. The vocals in the final track are also powerful and brooding when they need to be. It has some of my favorite moments!
The drums are also really enjoyable. They tone it right down when necessary, but throw in all sorts of amazing feel. When the heavy parts are there, he ups the ante and rips shit up. Definitely my favorite part of the drumming is the tastiness in the proggy sections though. His playing in the title track is absolutely fantastic. The snare work and cymbal work on this album is so great! His blasts are perfectly placed and everything. Great performance and arrangements!
This is a great ambitious and passionate effort by a creative and talented young group of dudes with hearts of gold. This album has an awesome story to go along with it and there is really nothing not to like in my opinion! The attributes that they tastefully incorporate is excellent. The doom, but circus like ending to the album is completely perfect too!
If you live in Western Canada catch them on their Sci-Fied and Fried Tour this June:
June 7th – Kelowna (Muninn’s Post)
June 8th – Red Deer (The Vat)
June 9th – Edmonton (DV8)
June 10th – Calgary (Nite Owl)
June 11th – Medicine Hat (Kinplex Social Room)
June 12th – Kamloops (TBA)
June 16th – Abbostford (Brothers Bowling)
June 17th – Vancouver (SBC Restaurant)
June 22nd – Nanaimo (The Cambie)
June 23rd – Port Alberni (The Rainbow Room)
June 24th – Victoria (TBA)
“SO MALLEABLE!”
For fans of – The Red Chord, Black Crown Initiate, Job For A Cowboy, Gorod, Between The Buried And Me, Caecus
9.5/10 \m/
LINKS
https://www.facebook.com/THCdeath
https://thcdeath.bandcamp.com/album/solar-cremation
https://twitter.com/THCdeath
https://www.instagram.com/THCdeath/
-Brett /,,/(°o°)/,,/
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