Style: Melodeath/Power (Mixed vocals)
Review by: Jonah
Country: Germany
Release date: 03-10-2018
NOTE: This album was originally included in the October 2018 issue of The Progressive Subway
I’m incredibly fond of Melodic Death Metal. It was my introduction to the more extreme metal subgenres, and without it I’d probably still be listening to Nu-Metal and crying. Because of this, I tend to hold the genre to a pretty high standard. I’ve heard so much good Melodeath that the bad just feels that much worse. Because of this, I always go into new releases with more trepidation than most other genres. So the question is, does Leviathan DE have the Melodeath chops to impress me?
Nope.
Instrumentally this album is fine. Also, instrumentally this is a Power Metal album. That’s where my issues really start. Melodeath is supposed to incorporate those melodic from Power and Traditional Heavy Metal into a Death Metal structure, which is great. The problem here is that the death metal elements, instrumentally, are minimally present at best. Sometimes there’s a double-bass drum, but that’s about it. Otherwise I might as well be listening to Stratovarius.
So this leads you to think, where does the Death Metal come in? It has to be the vocals, right? Unfortunately that would be correct. I say unfortunately because god damn the vocals are bad. Not “oh this could get better with practice” bad, they’re just unpleasant. The harshes are really sharp and shrieky and just generally aurally jarring. However, the real sin comes when the band layers those harshes over clean, female vocals. This in theory might be good, but in practice it’s a dumpster fire. The clean vocals are competent at best, but there’s minimal strength or tonal variety to them, which just emphasizes how one-note the harshes are. Added to this is what may be my absolute biggest pet-peeve in music production. The two vocal tracks aren’t synced up half the time, leaving a microscopic gap between when the clean and harsh tracks start and end. At first it isn’t bad, but the more I listen the more I notice and the more it drives me insane. Does this ruin the album? Probably not for everyone, but it comes damn close for me.
This is a difficult one for me, because the guitar-work and drumming are quite competent, albeit barely death-metal related. The bass is inaudible if present. Also of note is that there are random Latin-inspired acoustic bits scattered throughout the album that are incredibly pleasant and also don’t make any sense whatsoever in the spots they are used.
I can’t recommend this album, I just can’t. The music doesn’t make sense, the vocals are painful, and the composition is often just confusing. If you want to give it a listen after reading this, go for it, but I definitely won’t be returning.
Recommended tracks: Lake of Blood
Recommended for fans of: Dark Tranquility, In Flames
Final verdict: 4/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Leviathan is:
– Jule Dahs (vocals)
– Tobias Dahs (guitars)
– Tobias Parke (drums)
– Hendrik Franke (bass)
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