Thursday, August 6, 2009

Construcdead - Endless Echo (2009)

Construcdead is essentially a Swedish all-star band that combines the popular melodic death metal style with a groove metal tone, not unlike The Defaced. Not surprising, since this, their fourth album, features Jens Broman (Darkane, the Defaced) on vocals. The band also features Thomas Fällgren (ex-Sins of Omission), Rickard Dahlberg (Face Down) and Niklas Karlsson (Soils of Fate). Endless Echo is a slightly above average album (their fourth), with a few exciting moments when they drift into the thrashier Darkane territory.

The album starts with "Sedated Morning", a groove metal tune with a few death-thrashing breaks that fail to capitalize on any sort of memorable riffing. The song sounds a lot like The Defaced but not as catchy as some of their material. "My Haven" is considerably heavier, could easily have appeared on the first few Darkane records with its callous and venomous thrashing hatred. "Endless Echo" is instantly more impressive with its catchy little arpeggio and the creepy clean vocals over the mute chugging of the bridge. And the remainder of the album is quite solid...with an occasional miss. "A Goddess Breaches Through Me", "Disfigured Beauty" and "No Exit" all feature some killer hooks, even the grooves shine.

Featuring the caliber of musicians it does, Endless Echo has a killer depth to its production which vibrantly captures all of the instruments and the multi-faceted vocals of Broman. The man sounds natural here, whether he's barking out his Darkane snarls or his bigger, burlier cleans. The musicianship is tight all around, but this isn't a band to go off into technical tangents. Focus is entirely on the thrashing, grooving chaos created in their riffs, a hybrid of The Haunted, Soilwork, and many of their Swedish peers. Though not every song here is catchy or a winner, I enjoyed this more than their previous output, and its probably worth checking out if you enjoy any of the other bands I mentioned in the review.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.construcdead.com/

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