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Helping the World to See is one of the albums in Death Metal that is a bit confusing to look at. On one side, you have people who absolutely enjoy this album and call it a classic Death Metal masterpiece. Then, you have the other side who professes blasphemy towards the band and claims anyone who enjoys this album is a "mallcore kiddie". Why there is such a big division about this one release by Vehemence is beyond clarification, but at the same time some of these individuals do have justification, but not enough to call this release absolute garbage. As a matter of fact, there is a lot going on int his album, so let's get this review started, as there's plenty of ground to cover. This release departs from the band's conceptual album God Was Created and keeps plenty of the essential sounds from the previous albums, but has refined them a bit more with hard hitting technical riffs and sometimes dark and melodic hooks when needed to create a heavy, often sinister sounding album. Right when the album kicks in and you get past the hospital introduction, you are greeted with some fantastic Death Metal on "By Your Bedside" that is just crushing and is rarely seen in this style anymore, or at least done this well. This solid track sets the tone of the rest of the album very well, and the same intensity is kept as the album progresses, even though some of the better material on the album is at the start with the aforementioned "By Your Bedside", and the addictingly dark "Kill for God". Aside the atmosphere and pace set by these opening tracks, as well as some later songs such as the nicely executed "What Could Go Wrong?" which finds the band mixing up some simple riffs with their own unique essence, Helping the World to See is more then just intense technical music, as there are still the slower tracks that stem into the borders of Melodic Death without crossing the line that further enhances the album and ultimately have you come back for another listen once everything offered here sinks in from the first time through. "You Don't Have to be Afraid Anymore" starts off very slow with a haunting keyboard rendition going on in the back as an introduction to the song before slamming right into the signature sound that this release with technical guitars, a great vocal range, and well timed drumming. The next track, "Alone in Your Presence" is actually the first real full-length slow song you'll happen on, coming off more as a semi-acoustic song that In Flames would be responsible for in their mid-career, starting off as an unplugged "acoustic" track with a little singing involved in the background, but slowly picking up with guitars that drown out the established guitars, as well as the drums that continue to build until the song closes. It's a nice little addition to the album, but that's about it and could easily be skipped over since it works to keep the atmosphere of the release alive, but kind of distorts a bit thanks to the riffs being more Melodic then anything. As far as the album goes as a whole, it's not without it's issues. First of all, the album was recorded in two different studios. Everything was recorded DBD Studios except the drum tracks, which were recorded at Porcupine Studios. It's not really clear why it was done, probably for better drum track recording quality, but either way, you can tell something's not right in the final mix. The drumming is much clearer compared to everything else, as well as a little higher in the mix. While having the drums a little higher is the main gripe some people have about this album, it's hard to look at this album and say they are not mixed in well at all, as the drumming really works with the guitars on this release. Had the drums not stood out on the release, it's hard to picture it sounding half as good as it is right now since a good ammount of this album's bite stems from the drumming and the fact that it does stand out more then the rest of the album. This doesn't mean that everything else is washed out and you cannot hear it, as you can make out the vocals perfectly and it's very rare that you'll sit back and feel that a guitar chord of riff was washed out by the drumming. On top of all of this, the band unfortunately does bring in some filler sounding material to the mix. While "Alone in Your Presence" feels a bit unoriginal, as well as out of place, there's still others on here that hold the album back. For started, "To the Taste" is a song that is out of place, much like "Alone in Your Presence", except it's at the far end of the spectrum since it's the fastest track on here and is more geared towards having a better pit reaction then the rest of the music. "Spirit of the Soldiers" is just like many of the songs on this album, but it just feels a little drawn out after a while as the music really isn't all that impressive and comes off more bland then anything. Even the guitar solo that is utilized in this song doesn't stand out and ultimately just gets boring after the first few seconds. There's even a bonus track on this release, "Her Beautiful Eyes", which is just a re-recording of the song off the band's first demo entitled Vehemence. This track is a nice addition to the album and does keep with the latter flow of the album, but just isn't all that interesting to listen to, sadly. If you have not checked out Helping the World to See, then it's about time you do. Vehemence have put together a solid Death Metal effort with only a few flaws musically, but isn't something you can listen to repeatedly for long stretches of time. There isn't much in the way of variety on here, true, but in no way does the album become repitive from it. It's just that the overall recording quality is what makes it hard to listen to more then two or three times back to back without taking a break, but when you do take that break and come back ready to tackle the many crushing sons of this release, then you'll embrace it once more like it was a new experience, and makes for a great album on a rainy day later on down the road. |
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