In a day with many metalcore bands getting together
and putting out music, sooner or later they all start to sound alike. Adversary
is not one of those generic bands. These guys are more unique than most
bands today that use Swedish death influences; Swedish death/thrash via
Gothenburg to be exact. You can hear The Haunted, Entombed, Carcass, In
Flames, old Shadows Fall, maybe a tad of Brand New Sin too, but its more
melodic death metal oriented than anything. The pacing is anywhere from
mid to fast paced, depending on the speedy or groove-heavy riffs. Adversary
has many riff styles that they do well including those groove-driven riffs,
lively death riffage, and technical riffs. However, I like the intense,
face ripping, pummeling, heavy as hell riffs them most! They fill me up
with adrenaline while I listened like I was about to jump into a mosh pit.
Hit me, please! The worthy solos and the good rhythm section adds to the
metallic musical mayhem. For vocals there are deep death vocals and shrieking
death screams for the most part. Singing, clean vocals too – not much
though. Probably a good thing since the clean vocals distract from the heaviness.
I don’t know why, but the clean vocals kind of ruin it for me. The
first track, “Hedonist,” sounds like the metal alarm has gone
off. Better get into that pit! “The Grand Mistake” is probably
my favorite on the four tracks and a little over twenty minutes. One last
note, one of the producers of the demo was Kevin Gutierrez of Project: Failing
Flesh. Ben McCall was as well. Production is more than fine for a demo.
I’m looking forward to more from Adversary!
Rating: 82
Reviewed By: Jeffrey D. Adkins |
