This Finnish act has members from a couple of bands that I am not familiar with, namely The Man Eating Tree and Hung, as this project unleashes a debut of epic proportions. The band name may conjure up thoughts of something restrained and lightweight but nothing could be further from the truth as the nine songs on this album are full frontal deathly assaults but with an added quotient of inserting off kilter passages and sections that initially will furrow your eyebrows as the release kicks off with “The Gates”. The song resides in death metal but it expands you are introduced to sonic trickery in the form of deft riffing exposés that are quirky and add an inherent progressive like quality. Included in that riffing is the bass work which is excellent, linking superbly with the lead breaks which are copious and brilliantly executed.
You can feel the momentum on this release as “When The Snakes Are Dead” continues with a flurry of half blast and a riffing style that has a Voivod touch, being slightly off kilter but extremely catchy. “Frozen Heart” has a beastly riff, linked to a driving double kick foundation settling the song within familiar death metal territory, but as the song evolves the switch in atmosphere to a progressive approach is matched by the musicianship as each person in the band exhibits tremendous flair with their instruments. Delivering a head caving riff on “Loosing Myself” the song appears to be adopting a straight up deathly assault only for that guitar trickery to weave a merry dance around the listener and for me personally that aspect of the bands song writing arsenal is similar to The Dillinger Escape Plan as the riffs and leads rain down in waves of technical dexterity.
In places I felt the shout styled vocals are a little over placed and dominant but is a minor point overall as every song is different, typified by “Let It Burn” which begins with a sorrowful melody exuding a gloomy ethos before the track picks the pace up with multiple vocal personalities on show. The songs death metal foundation is intact as it shifts into grisly mode effortlessly with considerable expertise leaving “No More” to close the album in fine fashion with its menacing musicianship and gnarly vocals. The song leans towards a post rock posture as it drifts within its deathly poise branching out with riffing flurries and very subtle guitar hooks something that this album possesses by the truckload.
Challenging the boundaries of death metal Post Pulse has crafted an album that is death metal based, but ventures much further afield to allow influences from a variety of extreme music platforms to create an ambitious highly engaging album that I assure you is worth the effort and is being offered as a name your price on their bandcamp page.
9/10 (Martin Harris)
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