(TheMadIsraeli delivers the next installment of his Melodeath Week series.)
Now we get into the real meat and potatoes. This is the shit I LOVE out of this list. So without further ado…
The Absence is pretty easy to sum up. Mix At The Gates with early In Flames and you have this band in a nutshell. From Your Grave, for a debut, was vicious, sharp, and aiming for the throat. This band was obviously out for blood at the time, having the problem to overcome of being an American melodeath band.
From Your Grave is fast, technical, and memorable in all the right ways. Somehow The Absence found a way to take the brutality and dark riffing of At The Gates and counterbalance it with In Flames sense of guitar harmonies and emotive melodies. As the album’s intro plays, with that somber sole riff in the distance and the harmony coming into it, you’re being lured you into the assault of the official opener “A Breath Beneath”.
This album is full of riffs. Chock-fucking-full. You’ll remember every single one of them and want to hear them on repeat. Guitar duo Patrick Pintavalle and Peter Joseph perform with each other as if they’re one entity. It’s rare to hear two guitarists who write dual guitar parts THIS seamless. Picking the harmonies at the right time is a huge thing for me on this album. In fact, everything occurs at the right place, at the right time.
Most of you will already know this band, but if you don’t, learning about them now might serve you well. These guys BLEED melodic death metal. Listen after the jump . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8LHBFgIcz0
10 Responses to “MELODEATH WEEK: THE ABSENCE”
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At The Gates + In Flames? Seriously?
All I hear is Arch Enemy + Testament.
The equation = awesome.
Although… well, “From Your Grave” to me isn’t really anything special. It’s good. But “Riders…” is phenomenal. Start to finish.
I favor Riders, too. So damned solid throughout. I lost count of how many times I tracked that album after it came out. But From Your Grave is pretty damned strong, too.
I agree with the Testament comparison but only after From Your Grave.
I love Riders & From Your Grave, but I’m kind of partial to the latter. The first time I heard them was back in 2005 on a cd sampler. Initially the guitars is what had me hooked from the get go, but then I warmed up to the vocals. Enemy Unbound was ok, but not as memorial as their first two albums. (IMO) There’s not a single weak song on From Your Grave. The whole album flows so fluidly from start to finish. Glad to see you guy’s are showing them some love, they’re so underrated. If you’re on YouTube check out their song called The Danse. (it’s a Japanese Bonus track that’s instrumental) …Also The Absence interpretation video by sto0pidmonkey is funny as hell.
These guys are really thrashy at times, which isn’t always a bad thing, but Absence is not a band I can listen to for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. Part of thier sound seems a bit formulaic to me. Don’t get me wrong, I own both Riders and From Your Grave, but some elements of the sound irritate me for some reason. I end up turning it off sometimes. These are the reasons why I wasn’t in any hurry to go out and pick up thier new disc. They’re good, but there are a lot of better bands, IMO.
Grrr…. disagreeing opinions make Hulk mad!
Internet smash!
Listen to some songs, and the thong that got me is the singing. its just fantastic! Like an awesome blend of At the gates and Tsjuder!
def. gonna chekk out more from these guys
The thong?
A friend of mine showed me these guys last year, and I’ve been into them ever since. They’re just so classic-sounding, and their guitarists know how to pull of some seriously catchy melodies.
off*