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echidna dawnofthesociopath
Artist: Echidna
Album: Dawn Of The Sociopath
Genre: Death/ Thrash Metal
Release Date: 10th October 2011
Label: Rastilho Records


Album Review

The new ECHIDNA album, ‘Dawn Of The Sociopath’, is a bit more of a conceptual album than past works of the band. After a brief line-up change, ‘Dawn…’ stands as the proving grounds for vocalist Bruno Capela, who is known for his work in BREED DESTRUCTION. Overall, this gives ECHIDNA a new sound, falling along the lines of groups that range from THREAT SIGNAL to THE HAUNTED, except that rather than follow Melodic Death Metal, ECHIDNA try to be louder and heavier than ever while focusing on a twisted story. The album opens with the brief, but Thrash inspired instrumental ‘Synaptic Entropy’ which sets the stage for the where the album is headed, even though the high doses of melody are deceiving as the following track ‘The Antagonist’ tends to fall more into a hard, chugging formation that is layered with a few catchy, repetitive guitar notes that soon fold back into the more simplistic churnings. The vocals tend to be more of a snarl than the deep Death Metal growl, but stand to be just as ferocious, and other times they speak in an apathetic, droning tone that helps with the whole concept element (usually these sections are where the guitars let up in their chugging and tend to simplify to the single, catchier notes). On other tracks like ‘Violent Compulsion’, the music is more technical and heavier with a bit more cohesion as opposed to less melodic, individual moments, but falls more into the Death Metal vein that made the pat few ECHIDNA releases such a hit. Some might say that while tracks like these are heavier, it is the quieter tracks that add heaps of atmosphere and bring the sociopath story to life such as ‘Obscuring My Reason’, which has an excellent soft interlude that also features faded vocals, sounding more twisted than when they are roaring in full force.

The album is also populated by a few interlude tracks similar to the introduction, although they are much quieter and ambient. ‘Agon’ is barely audible, save for a few electronic bleeps here and there are ghostly vocal samples which are also a bit too quiet to hear. Fans will most likely prefer ‘Catharsis’, which starts out in the exact same way, but once the guitar comes in, the haunting factor rises much higher as opposed it just being ambient noise. On top of this, the vocal samples a much clearer as well, allowing listeners to understand the madness going on. These little moments are brief to enjoy and artistically break up the album compared to the heaviness of a track like ‘Dawn Of The Sociopath’, which seems to offer no mercy whatsoever upon the ears, save for the brief bits of melody within the solos. Overall, the story is finally complete with the track ‘The Fallout’, which does include a brief minute of silence at the end that is rather unnecessary, but is better than some bands that include five minutes instead. Aside from the new vocalist, ECHIDNA doesn’t stray too far from the music of their past albums, which will please older fans. The entire sociopath concept may not rouse much in the way of interest as it is something that so many different metal bands have covered, but as far as the music goes this is a strong mix of Death Metal tinged with Thrash and maybe even a bit of Melodic Death in the mix, without the use of keyboards or clean vocals.


Tracklist

01. Synaptic Entropy - 1:25
02. The Antagonist - 4:40
03. Violent Compulsion - 3:59
04. Commanded By Demons - 4:47
05. Agon - 2:02
06. Obscuring My Reason - 4:18
07. Sentient Nightmare - 3:56
08. Dawn Of The Sociopath - 4:47
09. Bloodlust - 4:19
10. Catharsis - 2:23
11. The Fallout - 6:03


Line-up

Bruno Capela – Vocals
David Doutel – Guitar
Pedro Lima – Guitar
Tiago Cardoso – Drums
Miguel Pinto – Bass/Backing Vocals


Website

http://www.myspace.com/echidna


Cover Picture

echidna dawnofthesociopath


Rating

Sound: 7
Music: 7
Total: 7 / 10


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