Insidiae - Where Demons Dare
'Where Demons Dare' is the debut full length release from Insidiae. Taking a rather typical approach to Progressive Death Metal, the group merges rather mid paced churning guitar with backing keyboards and a cross of clean, almost mournful singing comparable to that of mid era Iced Earth and deeper, less well produced growls that help offset the singing. On the plus side, when layered together neither overtakes the other and they actually sound quite well together, such as on the track "Through The Eyes Of The Blind." The album opens with the drum solo of "March Into Hell" which is a rather unique way to start off the album, but then leads into "Mercenary," the album's first single. Here, the band tends to delve more into just Progressive Rock, leading out the growl vocals and focusing on more of a basic chugging Heavy Metal structure that can be compared to more modern metal bands like Susperia. Still, as the album carries on, Insidiae throw in a few more surprises here and there. "I Won't Be Buried With You" has a bit of a Gothic Metal touch to it that sheds away from the more generic Heavy Metal sound that is heard on the other tracks.
Like most Prog albums, Insidiae throw a curveball into the heaviness by including a slow song. "Negotiation Delerium" is an acoustic, haunting, and beautifully orchestrated piece. Rather than using the keyboards in the symphonic vein, they are more used to a sci-fi tone that is heard in Pink Floyd songs while every once in a while have a classical, clean piano tone to them. The vocals- all clean this time- suit the dark atmosphere perfectly. Then there is the closing "Where Demons Dare," which is really one of the first 'Death Metal' tracks to really appear. With a more seamless structure of just hard riff after riff with more use of the growls and using the keyboards to hold everything together aside from the guitar solos, the music is certainly more Melodic Death Metal than anything, but with the trade off between harsh and clean vocals, it feels like Insidiae really find their niche here. Sadly, they don't reprise with the opening drumming which would have been an awesome way to close the song. Still, the whole album is well orchestrated and designed around the clean vocals and the music with just enough death grunts to be considered 'Prog Death Metal" without raising too many eyebrows.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/v/2ifdrOACEmQ[/embed]
Like most Prog albums, Insidiae throw a curveball into the heaviness by including a slow song. "Negotiation Delerium" is an acoustic, haunting, and beautifully orchestrated piece. Rather than using the keyboards in the symphonic vein, they are more used to a sci-fi tone that is heard in Pink Floyd songs while every once in a while have a classical, clean piano tone to them. The vocals- all clean this time- suit the dark atmosphere perfectly. Then there is the closing "Where Demons Dare," which is really one of the first 'Death Metal' tracks to really appear. With a more seamless structure of just hard riff after riff with more use of the growls and using the keyboards to hold everything together aside from the guitar solos, the music is certainly more Melodic Death Metal than anything, but with the trade off between harsh and clean vocals, it feels like Insidiae really find their niche here. Sadly, they don't reprise with the opening drumming which would have been an awesome way to close the song. Still, the whole album is well orchestrated and designed around the clean vocals and the music with just enough death grunts to be considered 'Prog Death Metal" without raising too many eyebrows.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/v/2ifdrOACEmQ[/embed]