Customer Reviews

Dying for Life

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is some of the best heavy metal I've heard in years, and I'm glad I bought it. This CD will be well worth the money if you like your metal heavy, technical, and VERY powerful. Highly recommended for fans of Nevermore, Dream Theater, and any Progressive Power metal.

This album leaves no doubt that the members of Antithesis know how to play their instruments extremely well. They also can write complex music. This album can best be described as precision metal. Think Dream Theater or Symphony X for a good comparison.

If you like a little complexity in your metal, then Antithesis is worth checking out. Great stuff !!

Melodic-death-metal a la In Flames, if you like In Flames or Arch Enemy this is a must have... great riffs, solos and the vocals are awesome.

You can't review a prog metal album without the obligatory raving about the musicians' technical abilities (I'm convinced that many prog reviews are simply erudite versions of "My guy can play more intricate material than your guy!" in a sort of classical music meets kids from the wrong side of the tracks snob fight). OK, I'll admit it. The band members have talent, and they know how to make some nifty melodies from time to time, but effective songs, they make not. It's like every song exists just to showcase the prowess of the musicians. The vocals, while excellent, are just an afterthought. That's a shame, because the lead singer has a fine voice capable of everything from screaming to spooky growls to emotion-choked wails to powerful singing.

The album falls prey to the same problems that beset genre-combining bands in general, and prog metal bands in specific -- how to use the best of the genres and make it work? In the case of prog metal, you risk the music sounding weak and emasculated (as it does here), dreadfully long and boring (as it does here) and prone to noodling and without hooks or cohesion (guess what).

But whither the metal? Hint: playing guitars very fast does not automatically create heavy music. You sound like Shadowfax rather than Slayer. Even Tourniquet's brand of speedy progressive thrash outshines Antithesis; at least Tourniquet brings the music into focus with killers like "Trivializing the Momentous, Complicating the Obvious."