Death Comes Pale’s bassist Anders contacted a couple of days ago and asked if we wanted to review their EP Through Carrion Eyes. Sure, we do. The first thing I noticed when I looked through the press material, was that I have the same Bloodbath shirt, the guy in the middle above wears. High-five!
Before I review the EP, let me tell you that you can listen to the entire EP on DCP’s homepage. Come on, free shit. Who can resist free shit?
Now make the jump for me review of Through Carrion Eyes.
Death Comes Pale – Through Carrion Eyes
1. Primal Supremacy – 5:46
2. Serpent Of Eden – 6:01
3. Eclipse Of The Dead – 4:49
4. The Heretical Storm – 4:46
As always, I’m going to start my review with a look at the artwork. The art is quite simple but I like it. There’s a raven in front of a cemetery. Simple but effective. The only problem I have with the cover is the band’s logo and album title. It looks pretty amateurish to me, especially the album title. Now, let’s talk about the music.
‘Primal Supremacy’ starts off quite Black Metalish, I like that. It’s really atmospheric. During the verses, the riffing still sounds like slow Black Metal but not the vocals. They actually remind me of Mark Hunter’s (Chimaira) vocals a bit. The song also goes more into the Metalcore direction as time goes by. A solid opener but nothing mindblowing yet.
‘Serpent Of Eden’ starts off promising and fast. The drumming in the intro, again, remind one of Black Metal but once the song really starts, it again goes into Metalcore territory and adds some Groove here and there. The band is labelled as Death Metal but I don’t really hear that anywhere within these songs. Not the riffing, the drumming or the vocals. But let’s not judge the whole EP before I’ve listened to all four songs. The solo in this song is a highlight and comes along quite clean and sounds great in contrast to the dark atmosphere.
Finally, ‘Eclipse Of The Dead’ starts off with a Death Metalish intro. I wouldn’t quite label the whole song Death Metal but there are hints to be found here and there. The band doesn’t stick to that though, as they again add lots of Black Metal riffs near the end of the song. ‘The Heretical Storm’ doesn’t differ much from the previous three songs.
Overall, I expected something different, considering Death Comes Pale are labeled as Death Metal. Don’t let that fool you, this band doesn’t play Death Metal but a mixture of Metalcore, Groove Metal and Black Metal. Imagine Chimaira, just heavier and darker, and you’ve got Death Comes Pale. It’s a pretty nifty EP and I enjoyed listening to it. I especially liked the addition of Black Metal riffing and drumming because I haven’t heard that within this genre (Groove Metal) before. Solid.
