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An energetic, brutalizing Death Metal assault on your ear drums.-
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| Vale of Pnath: The Prodigal Empire |
Technical Death Metal
Willowtip Records
August 9th, 2011
- Legacy of Loss - 5:27
- Mental Crucifixion - 5:27
- Brain Butchers - 4:42
- The Prodigal Empire - 3:11
- Borne Extinction - 5:43
- Poisoned by Prosperity - 2:33
- Time of Reckoning - 3:56
- Sightless - 4:36
- Cerulean Eclipse - 6:00
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| Review Information |
Release length: 41:36
Review posted on August 7th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 9/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
The Prodigal Empire (2011)
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| EP(s): |
Vale of Pnath (2008)
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| Review |
Vale of Pnath is a Technical Death Metal group from Denver, Colorado that formed back in 2005. In 2008, the group issued their independent EP titled Vale of Pnath, and it didn't really gain much attention outside their hometown. It wouldn't be for another three years that the band would find themselves putting out a new album, their debut full-length release titled The Prodigal Empire. This comes after finding a home with record label Willowtip Records, a suitable home for a band of this quality. With ties to works of writer H.P. Lovecraft in the band's name (referencing a pit in the H.P. Lovecraft underworld that has mountains of human remains in it), one would immediately begin to expect good things from the group. But, while the band does a good job, the album is far from a technical masterpiece. It comes pretty close though, but just not quite there.
The Prodigal Empire leaves some mixed emotions in their wake. The music on the album is certainly heavy, but due to the clearer production of the album and the band's more technical approach to music, it can feel a little hollow at times. Musically the guitars sound heavy and the bass makes a decent presence, though it's not the most impressive level to the mix but enough to make a bit of an impact to the music. The drums are not usually as technical and often are perfpormed in a normal pace to the rest of the music, all parts having good levels and a nice click to the bass kicks, complimenting the guttural performance nicely. The overall sound comes off with that kind of hollowness that Job for a Cowboy had in their music when they ditched the Deathcore sound for a more common Death Metal approach: It's heavy, but in the end still feels a bit hollow. Had a stronger bass presence been made on this release, it would easily have filled up some of those gaps in the music that feel a little empty due to the technical approach kind of leaving some space between chords. This immediately becomes apparent at the start of the album on "Legacy of Loss" and even "Mental Crucifixion", though the latter of the two has a slower part with some less technical chords the preceed a breakdown that feel very rich and fill those gaps, while those gaps sound alright during the breakdown because that's when you should really hear them. The guitar solo on this and other tracks sound fantastic when not sticking to that chugging technical approach like "Legacy of Loss" has, and even some of the bridges in this song and others that don't use a chugging approach work well and give the music a much richer sound.
The Prodigal Empire does have a number of solid tracks though, and some even with that technical chugging style of Death Metal. "Brain Butchers", for example, is more a traditional Death Metal track with a little more brutality, but the technical elements are much more fluid compared to the first two songs, and it really gives the song a stronger impact and just sound much stronger and brutal with a nice bit of atmospheric dismal melody to it as well. The song's more intimidating and even brutal sound really causes it to stand out, showing that not all tracks on here will have that sort of hollowness the release started with, but it's not until "Borne Extinction" that the band really shows their dexterity. The song moves at a quicker speed but has moments that go at a much slower pace, again creating a rather dismal atmosphere to the track, and it simply sounds crushing. It seems the band really tries to drop that technical chugging sound as you reach "Brain Butchers", and they do a fantastic job of it as you don't really hear much from it again outside the breakdown on "Time of Reckoning", another brutalizing track similar to the aforementioned "Brain Butchers".
And that's something to take notice of. While the material doesn't necessarily get better as you reach the end, some tracks just feel a little more rich in comparison. "Sightless" is by far the best track off the recording thanks to it's really brutal sound incorporated into the less technical guitar work compared to "Legacy of Loss", and all around just makes for a stand out track to the release that is highly enjoyable and will have the listener's blood pumping while returning for repeat spins of this track. The song is just tight from start to finish, and really shows what the band can bring to the table. The same can go for "Time of Reckoning", though it doesn't feel as brutal, though it's still a fantastic entry to the recording. But with all these phenomenal songs on this release, there's also the closing track "Cerulean Eclipse", a suitable close to the album that almost takes things into a more epic direction. The bass kicks fire like machine guns against intense, brutal music with that dismal atmospheric melody backing it up, tied neatly together in a technical Death Metal cacophony of adrenaline and intimidation. This six minute track holds the listener's attention well and sends it off in a far better manner then the album was introduced in.
With the first two tracks of The Prodigal Empire not really being anything that impressive, especially for the Technical Death Metal field due to the more open riffs and their suffering from less bass and clearer audio quality, though that part doesn't really seem to affect the rest of the album in a negative way but rather in a positive manner to enhance the impact of the music when it starts picking up and isn't in a chugging manner, it's rather shocking when the album picks up with "Brain Butchers" and simply doesn't stop, leading up to the last few tracks being some of the most intense, as well as interesting entries of the release. Fans of Death Metal will certainly embrace this album warmly as it slams against their skull with blunt musical force that simply cannot be reckoned with. If you did not hear the band's initial EP, then by all means make sure to check out Vale of Pnath's full-length offering The Prodigal Empire, as it's an energetic, brutal Death Metal assault on your ear drums.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Willowtip Records.
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