The super-chunky rhythm guitars and frenetic drumming, blastbeats and all, is nothing if not solid. The guttural, growling vocals certainly aren't wimpish, and after my recent gripes about so many metal releases being simply too soft, not least of all in their predictable use of clean, tuneful vocals that say 'sensitive' rather than 'pissed off', this comes as a welcome change.
Yet still something's not quite right. The lyrics, perhaps? 'We set sell for these ancient lands / murdering slaughtering every women and child every man on earth / Everyone that got in out way we busted through like water to fire...' Ok, not great, but no, that's not it. Ah, wait. It's the drawing on melodic metal: the frilly, flowery fretwanking flourishes aren't only way OTT, they're a real distraction. They might define Promethee's sound, but not in a particularly good way.
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There's nothing more likely to slow the pace of a speeding juggernaut and send a track's suck levels off the scale than coming over all Yngwie Malmsteen. There's only so many arpeggios, harmonic scales, squealy notes, twiddles and tapping breaks I can take, and over the course of the five tracks on this EP, I've had my fill for an entire year.
Promethee on MySpace
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