Thursday, August 12, 2010

Dark Vision - Bestial Remedy

Gothic/Symphonic Black Metal is no longer accurate

The Encyclopaedia Metallum entry for Dark Vision lists them as Gothic/Symphonic Black Metal. I haven't heard anything prior to this EP, but I find it completely baffling that they could've gone from such a characteristically slower and more "beautiful" (for lack of a better word) genre to such a dirty (albeit diluted), Behemoth-esque style of death/black metal. Sure, they lack the retarded processed vocals and still have a good black metal influence in the riffing, but it's still a valid comparison to make. Out of the five tracks on display here, three are new originals, one is a rerecorded version of an older song, and one is a pointless intro.

The first real song, "Yearning Grotesque" has to be one of the most banal and plodding songs I've heard within the genre. The main riff is solid enough, but it lacks any real sense of fury and thus feels like the band wasn't really trying. "Warpulse" picks up the pace a bit with a strong black metal chord pattern backed by the standard thrash "sped up polka beat". The song doesn't do much in the way of changing until about halfway through when it breaks apart for a minute... it doesn't actually break down, just kind of falls apart for a few seconds with all of the instruments seemingly losing time from one another. In the context of a full album, this would undoubtedly be filler, memorable if only for the corny videogame sample at the end. "Signs from Fallen Stars" is rerecorded from an earlier release, and since I can't compare the difference, I can only say that it's a decent song, but again fails to fully capture my attention. It's more of the same slightly-faster-than-normal pace black/death. Dark Vision aren't bad, but they aren't really great songwriters, and these first three tracks prove it. Apart from a cool melodic lead in "Signs from Fallen Stars", the majority leaves much to be desired. Thankfully, the title track, "Bestial Remedy", closes the album on a high note. It seems like most of the anger and creativity was saved up for this track, as they finally managed to craft a worthwhile song. It's heavily dissonant and has a stronger death metal influence than the previous four, which indicates to me where the band's true strength lies. There's a long, doomy part in the middle that manages to keep the song interesting as well. I think Dark Vision has potential, but unless they can address their strengths and improve their songwriting skills drastically, they aren't going to be fondly remembered amongst the metal world, nor even their local scene.

RATING - 49%

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