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Diablo: Icaros

07/04/09 || GardensTale

Ahh, melodic death metal. How you are hated. Ever since In Flames and Soilwork pulled their little mainstream stunts, melodeath has achieved a reputation as the slightly more acceptable precursor to metalcore and nu-metal, even when it doesn’t come from Gothenburg. And Finland especially got the reputation of producing weak melodeath for the masses, with the mainstream swing of Children of Bodom since “Hatecrew Deathroll” as main example.

Cue Diablo.

After two solid albums went by unnoticed, Diablo broke into mainstream success with their third album, “Eternium”. A hearty lump of melodic death metal, yet not Gothenburg-ish at all; rather, it combined elements of thrash and groove metal and showed a love for a solid midpace, making it sound more like a Through the Ashes-era Machine Head without emo lyrics or crappy metalcore sections, including a couple of slightly more experimental parts like the song “Queen of Entity”. It got deservedly good reviews, including the Global Domination one here.

Then, after they kicked big names like Nightwish off the top of the charts, came their fourth piece, “Mimic 47”. Not a bad album by a long shot, but there were some -core influences in the songwriting that made many people fear the start of the classic yellow brick road to mainstream crap. Diablo would need to prove themselves on their next effort…

… and so much for the history lesson. On to the album.

Which, as you would see if you’re an impatient fucker who looks at the score before the review, is fucking PHENOMENAL. Yes, it warrants capitals. Fuck, if I could transform capitals into letters that make a bigger impression than capitals (cruise control for cool) I’d use it. Diablo have squeezed out an album that absolutely obliterates 99% of all other melodic death metal. Without losing their own particular style, they added to their sound by using less. That is, no female vocals or acoustic weird interludes.

The songwriting is the key to what makes this album work. Each song has its own face, its own feel, yet each song has the ability to get completely and utterly drilled into your head without leaving for hours on end, and it just never tires. Ever.

Diablo’s sound works on multiple levels, which is probably why it got so popular in their home country. On the one hand, you have the rhythm guitars and drumming, which is tighter than Sarah Palin’s ass and just as tasty. Except Diablo isn’t republican. Thank fuck. Anyway, the first taste of those tasty tasty backing sections comes about a minute into the opener, “Trail of Kings” (which is a fucking awesome title, I mean, when you leave a TRAIL of fucking KINGS in your wake, you know you got balls). The acoustic intro lets you settle in your seat, bathtub, couch, or vagina, after which some smooth melodic leads get you going, and then… WHAM, a barrage of riffs for which tight truly is the most appropriate word, and ‘a fucking bulldozer running across your skull’ is the most appropriate metaphor. When I listened to this the first time I was floored.

And then the truly typical Diablo sound develops when this unbelievably powerful riffing and drumming is accompanied by a slick melodic lead that sounds very organic, the way it twists around the riff but fits to it naturally. When the vocals come in, it reverts back to the riff, starting and stopping between the sung lines, and it sounds so natural the first few times you won’t even think to focus on any separate part, it sounds so naturally as a whole, and that’s due to the brilliant songwriting which elevates the album beyond the realm of solid and into the realm of fucking GODLY.

I could go on and on, dissecting each piece that makes the album work the way it does, but I’ll leave it at zooming in on the strongest and weakest song or this review will never fucking end. And you fuckers don’t want that, do you? Didn’t think so. You just want a score and me to shut the fuck up. Well, fuck you too.

Anyhow, by the time you get to track 4 and you cleaned up the cumloads squirted over the three past songs, a neat little drumming intro leads up to what I consider the very fucking pinnacle of this monster of an album: “Resign from Life”. It kicks off with the rhythm-lead combo that’s become familiar now straight away, and the verses, while strong, don’t even seem all that special. Fucking awesome, yes of course, but not especially compared to the rest of- HOLY FUCKING SHIT here comes the chorus, which is catchy, pummeling, groovy and contains all the elements of awesome this album sports, and then some. The layered vocals shouting I am crusading on this serpent of disgrace! just gets your blood fucking pumping. As awesome as the other tracks may be, this is the ultimate moment on Icaros.

The only song I would call ‘less than completely and utterly awesome’ would be “Hammer” which has sort of an awkward feel to it. The opening lines I don’t remember last night and Did I pass out or did I get into a fight just sound sort of weird due to their difference in length, and it’s the kind of thing this track sports more often.

But fuck it, such a minor blemish isn’t even worth detracting points for, especially when these lines come thundering along in the same song:

Say your prayers little one
The end has now begun
and I waste no time at all
‘cos here we stand or fall
It’s time for the hammer to fall

So there you have it. This fucking masterpiece of an album has grown to become my favorite melodeath album, ever. EVER. It may not be incredibly technical or original, but it takes everything good about melodic death metal and raises it to a level previously unheard of. I couldn’t possibly detract any points for anything on here, so there’s only one thing left for me to do…

Proclaim Icaros an underrated masterpiece and give it 10 genre pinnacles out of fucking 10.

Information
Released: 2008
Label: Sakara Records
Website: www.diabloperkele.com
Band
Rainer Nygård: vocals, guitar
Marko Utriainen: guitar
Aadolf Virtanen: bass
Heikki Malmberg: drums

Tracklist
01. Trail of Kings
02. Living Dead Superstar
03. Bad Sign
04. Resign from Life
05. Icaros
06. Light of the End
07. Chagrin
08. Through Difficulties to Defeat
09. Hammer
10. Into the Sea

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