Orphans of Sickness
We have
a long standing technical death metal tradition to respect in Québec
and Intonate are the brand new soldiers of this style. Their debut
album takes the flexible bass fluctuations of Beyond Creation and
push it towards a more dissonant and dark direction. One thing is for
sure, the four musicians were able to totally play their way through
the demented infernal landscape shown on the cover art with their
instrumental prowess.
It’s
a bit hard to distinguish progressive death from technical death as
they’re often closely related. Intonate explores a lot of
sensibilities here but we’re far from the ruthless and inane
technicality of Necrophagist. It’s more akin to Spawn of
Possession, Obscura or even the atmospheric obscurity of Ulcerate.
The lyrics written by guitarist Ulysses Fiorito are smart and often conceptual (some tracks are about the ancient Akkadian empire and the city of Uruk) or based around science fiction and philosophy. They're a good fit to the aural side of the band.
The bass is thick, played by a quasi virtuoso and we’re far from the annoying sound displayed by Dominic Lapointe on an album like The Aura. The Nucciarone brothers (Dominic on drums and Nicola on guitar/vocals ), just like the Duplantier brothers of Gojira, are one hell of a fraternal duo. The drumming is intense, precise yet subtle and the airy mastering gave it the necessary place to grow. Sure, there’s guitar solos but they don’t go overboard and become a burden to go through. While they remain a technically sound band, they still deliver loads of memorable moments such as “Retribution Waters” with the grievous harsh vocals performance of Nicola.
The bass is thick, played by a quasi virtuoso and we’re far from the annoying sound displayed by Dominic Lapointe on an album like The Aura. The Nucciarone brothers (Dominic on drums and Nicola on guitar/vocals ), just like the Duplantier brothers of Gojira, are one hell of a fraternal duo. The drumming is intense, precise yet subtle and the airy mastering gave it the necessary place to grow. Sure, there’s guitar solos but they don’t go overboard and become a burden to go through. While they remain a technically sound band, they still deliver loads of memorable moments such as “Retribution Waters” with the grievous harsh vocals performance of Nicola.
Some
tracks are lengthy but even “Eternal Seed” and its 13 minutes
doesn’t seem like a never-ending ordeal to listen to. It flows
very well and even if I think it’s an exhausting style of music due
to its demanding nature, I managed to listen to the album several
times without being bored and helpless. All in all, Intonate’s
debut album, while not totally something fresh or new is an excellent
offering of intelligent spatial death metal and someone should sign
these guys as soon as possible!
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