MELODEATH WEEK: DESTINITY

(Here’s the last installment of TheMadIsraeli’s almost week-long series on modern melodic death metal. He’s going out with a bang, featuring a killer band from France called Destinity.)

We’re gonna cut this a day short and call it a wrap with this post, since I now officially have other content to review. So, let’s close this baby up, shall we?

Destinity is the product of bringing together EVERYTHING that has been introduced into the melodeath style up to this point and a band who have evolved with the style. You may be surprised when I tell you that these guys have 7 albums. Yes seven. And you’ve probably never heard of them.

Destinity is also proof that despite its rising prominence, the French metal scene is still unfairly overlooked, because this is some of the best melodeath I’ve ever heard. The band’s most recent album,  XI Reasons To See (2010), is a slab of furious, fast, thrashing and blasting melodeath with dark symphonic elements and even some small electronic moments, with harsh, old-school death metal vocals that call back to the greats like Martin Van Drunen of Hail Of Bullets or Patrick Mamelli of Pestilence. If you want your list of influences for reference, it’s quite obvious this band listened to lots of old Arch Enemy, At The Gates, and Hypocrisy. LOTS, OF HYPOCRISY.

This album is made by the sense of drama it channels within its brutal mission statement. Moments such as the opening instrumental “Just Before…” transitioning into “A Dead Silence” show definite veteran status on the compositional front. This album makes a grand, profound entrance most bands have trouble invoking.  (more after the jump . . .)

“A Dead Silence” is a fast and furious thrasher that shows no mercy, with melodic riffs on the darker end of the spectrum, more angular and twisted sounding while still retaining that Gothenberg flavor. The rest of the album has only two modes, the blitzkriegs of songs like “A Dead Silence” or “Your Demonic Defense” or the call-backs to Hypocrisy in ballad-like pieces such as “To Touch The Ground” and “Rule Of The Rope”. It’s all awesome, all epic, and all headbanging delight. Check out this band, and their entire disco. You won’t be disappointed.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: XI Reasons To See was released by Lifeforce Records and is available at the usual online outlets. The band’s Facebook page is here. They’re currently on a European tour with Darkane called The Demonic Alliance Tour 2011. Now here are the tunes TheMadIsraeli selected for you to hear.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pdZNKFuXwQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rUhX2ahIwk&feature=related