Systematic Soul Deadening
Ravaging Madness ()
Wydane przez Self-financedRok wydania Kraj AustriaNapisał Wouter5Despite their death metal sounding moniker this Austrian unit play aggressive and hostile sounding thrash metal that sounds very inspired by "Contradictions Collapse" era Meshuggah and certain aspects of today’s modern metal movement. The pace is high and the delivery is breakneck yet Systematic Soul Deadening seems to feel trapped by the confines of the genre. The succession of riffs isn’t always as smooth as one would expect and the limited amount of grooves the band operate with make this sound as a less accomplished and a technically deficient (early) Machine Head or Pantera. The vocals and riffing are fittingly pissed off and in the expected At the Gates variety, although they border also slightly on black metal from time to time. Systematic Soul Deadening don’t hold much variety in their riffs and even by downtuning their guitars this fact is hard to hide from the discerning listener. The vocalist’s demonic shriek is definitely a plus, but whenever he breaks out his pseudo emotional clean vocals the effect of his brutal vocals is ruined. These clean vocals aren’t very good and they add nothing to this repertoire. Given the underground nature of this recording the production is pretty good considering the financial constraints. The guitar tone thick and its undefined nature actually increases the sense of overall heaviness. The bass guitar rumbles loudly in the background, which is a great feature and a welcome change from most modern recordings. The drums sound considerably good as well, with a thundering bass drum sound, although the snare drums sound a bit on the sterile side. The artwork, design and lay-out are amateurish, poorly constructed and plain ugly. Generally speaking, "Ravaging Madness" holds some good ideas but Systematic Soul Deadening don’t yet master the chops to fully execute these ideas and concepts.
www.systematicsouldeadening.com
