Band: Hour of Penance
Album: Sedition
Genre: Technical Brutal Death Metal
I'll be upfront right off - I haven't listened to all that much of Hour of Penance's work. That being said, I know when I hear technicality, along with brutality. Hour of Penance happens to hold both of those things near and dear to their hearts. On Sedition, the band takes a full-force approach to some in-your-face, speedy technical death metal. Is it any good? Does the band settle for speed over structure? I guess you'll just have to keep reading.
Sedition being the bands fifth full-length studio album, is a very rich album, with much to gain from listening. The band exhibits musical discipline both in their writing and performing. I can honestly say there isn't one bad song on this album. One of my problems, especially with technical death metal, is that bands have a tendency to write fast and technical for a three or four minute track. That'd make sense, holding true to the nature of the genre, but what most bands fail to recognize (or do recognize and choose to ignore) is that the song still has to go somewhere regardless of how fast the song is. Sedition holds some of the most well-paced technical brutal death songs I have heard in a long time.
One of the things that makes the songs, and in turn, the album flow so well is the structure of each and every song. While the band doesn't sell themselves short, playing all of the "widdly-diddly's" that other tech-death bands, such as Necrophagist, they aim more for a wall of sound. Every song sounds like it's own solid "block" if you will. The drums are the overall foundation of each "block," as they are constantly blasting throughout the whole album, yet still maintain to keep the beats fresh and technical. The guitars are blisteringly fast and share similar qualities to the drums in that they are continually speeding through at a fast rate - Yet it sounds so fucking good. The implementation of two guitars allows the band to have that aggressive "wall of sound" sound, while still being able to expand and build the song up more with various solos and strange passages with the other said guitar. I can't say much about the bass guitar though, as I had a pretty hard time hearing it. There are moments of audibility for the instrument, but as a whole, it got drowned out in the mix, which is pretty disappointing considering how much each of the other members display their skill on this album. I'd love to hear what the bassist is fully capable of. Some tracks to keep your ears open for would include "Enlightened Submission," "Fall of the Servants," and "Deprave to Redeem."
One thing that was somewhat of a significant let-down on Sedition is the fact that there were no slams on the album at all. I take that back. Maybe one or two. Now, I'm not saying that if there aren't slams, I don't like it. But as far as the genre goes, it's technical brutal death metal. While the album is a power-house of brutality, I'd heard hype about these guys being technical and slammy. It was definitely a little disappointment, though the album stands on it's own enough to be unbridled by the lack of any apparent slams.
With the exception of not being able to hear the bass that well, I'd say the overall production of this album is stellar. Where the band is playing faster, more blunt-force, aggressive music, having the mix and production be too muddled would have been the downfall of this album. Thankfully, the sound is crystal clear. All the rhythms on the guitars are distinguishable. The drums have a great sound to them. The vocals are mixed in well with the rest of the instruments.
Overall, this is one damn good album. Great structure, sound, and musicianship make this album stand in the foreground of technical death metal. It's not the best, and it's certainly not the worst, but if you pick this album up, I can guarantee it'll be playing over in your CD/MP3 player a few times over. If you're newer to the band like I am, I'd recommend you to check the album out. If you're a fan, then I can imagine you will be deeply pleased by the release.
Score: 7.5/10
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