Melodic death metal has pretty much dominated my tastes of late, so it’s always good to find a small band pop up and hit the nail on the head with their take on the genre. Influenced heavily by the Gothenburg scene of the 90s, Spanish group Default Dimension have delivered a nice heavy dose of melodeath on their latest effort, Lazaerus.
The Granada quartet come flying out of the gates within seconds, with “The Shadow” providing a wealth of punishing and technically impressive riffs from Abel Machado and frontman Raúl Martín. It feels like a much fresher take on the Swedish metal blueprint, which has begun to wear a little thin for some of its progenitors, with solid production (albeit one which neglects Manu Callejón’s bass work) adding an extra little kick to the lead guitars. The lead work of Abel is especially worthy of note on “Manifesto”, with scorching solo work elevating the track to one of the album’s highlights. The songwriting and performance has improved significantly from their self-titled debut – which, while serviceable in its own right, lacked any particular stand-out moments – and Lazaerus is really seeing Default Dimension pushing themselves to explore new territory in the already cramped field of melodic death metal.
Default Dimension don’t merely rest on their laurels with Lazaerus, though. While sticking to a core melodeath sound, they’re still willing to flirt with more extreme styles, such as on the more tremolo riff-driven “The Crusade”, where drummer Alejandro Martín in particular is put through his paces with breakneck double kick drums and an almost black metal influence seeping through. The progressive elements that slip through in their longer tracks (particularly album closer “Winter Again”) feel like a nod to acts like Soilwork, and are a good indicator of what Default Dimension are aiming for in the long term, while shorter tracks like “Altar of Solace” and “Witch” providing a more primal, to the point cut of death metal. This sort of variety will serve a band well when going forward.
One piece of advice I would offer is that Raúl should look to refine his vocal technique a little. There is an audible rasp to his screams which can be a little jarring and possibly cause damage to his vocal chords, but that is a risk that all metal vocalists take when performing, so with more practice it should improve over time. Some of the songs on Lazaerus do feel a little longer than they need to be, too, such as opening track “The Shadow” which could easily be half as long as it is, but with the album clocking in at only 30 minutes and 6 tracks, it’s possible that they felt the need to pad some of the songs out a bit to meet an album’s worth of music. Really, even as an EP this would’ve been potentially an outstanding effort but if Default Dimension want to keep going with the longer tracks, they will need to learn how to make every second count to prevent the listener from losing focus on the music.
In a way, Lazaerus is the work of a band in transition. While the guys in Default Dimension know exactly where they want to go, they are still happy to stick to the more straightforward stuff when it works for them. And the sophomore album always serves as a good testing ground for new ideas, some of which work (see: “Winter Again”, “The Crusade”) and some of which don’t (the longer passages of “The Shadow” and “Altar of Solace”). You have to roll with the punches at that stage, though, and on the whole you have an excellent little album here and potentially something of a rough diamond.
Stream the album below, and follow the band on Facebook.
The Granada quartet come flying out of the gates within seconds, with “The Shadow” providing a wealth of punishing and technically impressive riffs from Abel Machado and frontman Raúl Martín. It feels like a much fresher take on the Swedish metal blueprint, which has begun to wear a little thin for some of its progenitors, with solid production (albeit one which neglects Manu Callejón’s bass work) adding an extra little kick to the lead guitars. The lead work of Abel is especially worthy of note on “Manifesto”, with scorching solo work elevating the track to one of the album’s highlights. The songwriting and performance has improved significantly from their self-titled debut – which, while serviceable in its own right, lacked any particular stand-out moments – and Lazaerus is really seeing Default Dimension pushing themselves to explore new territory in the already cramped field of melodic death metal.
Default Dimension don’t merely rest on their laurels with Lazaerus, though. While sticking to a core melodeath sound, they’re still willing to flirt with more extreme styles, such as on the more tremolo riff-driven “The Crusade”, where drummer Alejandro Martín in particular is put through his paces with breakneck double kick drums and an almost black metal influence seeping through. The progressive elements that slip through in their longer tracks (particularly album closer “Winter Again”) feel like a nod to acts like Soilwork, and are a good indicator of what Default Dimension are aiming for in the long term, while shorter tracks like “Altar of Solace” and “Witch” providing a more primal, to the point cut of death metal. This sort of variety will serve a band well when going forward.
One piece of advice I would offer is that Raúl should look to refine his vocal technique a little. There is an audible rasp to his screams which can be a little jarring and possibly cause damage to his vocal chords, but that is a risk that all metal vocalists take when performing, so with more practice it should improve over time. Some of the songs on Lazaerus do feel a little longer than they need to be, too, such as opening track “The Shadow” which could easily be half as long as it is, but with the album clocking in at only 30 minutes and 6 tracks, it’s possible that they felt the need to pad some of the songs out a bit to meet an album’s worth of music. Really, even as an EP this would’ve been potentially an outstanding effort but if Default Dimension want to keep going with the longer tracks, they will need to learn how to make every second count to prevent the listener from losing focus on the music.
In a way, Lazaerus is the work of a band in transition. While the guys in Default Dimension know exactly where they want to go, they are still happy to stick to the more straightforward stuff when it works for them. And the sophomore album always serves as a good testing ground for new ideas, some of which work (see: “Winter Again”, “The Crusade”) and some of which don’t (the longer passages of “The Shadow” and “Altar of Solace”). You have to roll with the punches at that stage, though, and on the whole you have an excellent little album here and potentially something of a rough diamond.
Stream the album below, and follow the band on Facebook.
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