There is nothing hurried about this album from Portugal’s The Firstborn. “Lions Among Men” opens with the shaking of a tambourine, every 5-10 seconds and after about a minute some guitar harmonics and sustains start making a presence, at around 3 minutes drums and vocals slowly join the fray. Bruno Fernandes’ vocals are rasped shouts, then subdued lamentful near-chants. When Nuno Gervásio and Filipe Lima’s guitars build up in intensity, the vocals do so too, but they keep a nice steady melancholic pace with the leads having an Eastern flavour to the scales used.
Rolando Barros pounds his drums a little more frantically on “Without as Within” thereby giving Bruno more licence to lash out with his vocals, but at the same time giving him the opportunity to almost whisper during the breakdowns where the guitars just hold their notes creating a bit of a claustrophobic atmosphere more than anything else.
“Wantless” is a little more bouncy, with a hint of nastiness to it, but at the same time the sitar behind the screams takes the edge off a little allowing it to flow from the aggression to the peaceful guitar riffing that the song ends on.
Hélder Malícia’s booming bass accompanies the tom rolls on the opening of “Vajra Eyes” where once again Bruno’s vocals are harsh rasps sweetened by the eastern instruments played in the background. However at the apex, all the instruments are played at full power for an intense wall of sound.
The melodically sung clean vocals on “Eight Flashing Lances” are alternated with the heavier vocals and the weird timing signature of the offbeat on the cymbals add a pleasant eeriness to song, as do the chunky guitar riffs.
The haunting opening melody on “Nothing Attained, Nothing Spoken” slowly weaves itself into a heavier guitar sound with deep clean vocals, reminding me a little of Fields of the Nephilim.
“Sounds Liberated as Mantra” is a great way to end the album, as it’s full bodied and heavy, but again the eastern undertow breathes a different life into the song preventing it from being dull and uneventful.
I did enjoy the album and it’ll be rather nice to have another listen occasionally, but at the same time it’s not going to get a heavy rotation on my playlist as I feel it’s more novel than grabbing for me.
(5/10, Marco Gaminara)
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