Artist: Days Of Anger
Title: Death Path
Genre: Groove Metal
Release Date: 25th February 2011
Label: Massacre Records
Album Review
Sweden’s DAYS OF ANGER unleash their debut album, ‘Death Path’. Full of aggressive melodies, kick-in-the-teeth lyrics, and an energy that is can be felt to the core of the listener, ‘Death Path’ is full of great expectations. However, sometimes due to sound these expectations tend to fall short. Many tracks feature fuzzy guitar chugs over and over such as the opening track ‘Damaged’. This fuzziness blots out a lot of the other instruments such as the bass and even drums, which tend to get lost in the mix. The vocals switch between screams and rough singing / spoken words, but come off more as tired than engaged; sometimes it sounds like a bad parody on THROWDOWN or PANTERA. ‘One Way Ticket Down’ features a bit more groove as there are more breaks in the riffs so there are more catchy elements, but still, the vocals make the song a bit rougher than it really is. During the chorus it seems like all the band members are trying to sing at the same time, and not really getting in harmony. The solos are interesting though, aside from the fact they sound like drill bits spinning.
‘Hands Of Evil’ takes a turn for the better as it starts out slow with the clean vocals actually sounding decent while at the same time the guitars show off their most promising solo yet; it is very melodic and well crafted rather than just sounding like typical stints from so many other metal bands. ‘Buried Alive’s’ solo is insanely schizophrenic and bounces all over the place. Fans will see it is extremely technical or just psychotic randomness of a jam session. ‘Life Form’ is also notable as it trades fuzzy aggression for more melodic lines, and at the same time makes it better, especially near the end where everything hammers rhythmically in unison, but the guitars don’t seem like they are taking over. The vocals are still a bit too raw and lean more towards Metalcore/ Screamo and doesn’t hold the catchiness that the instruments do to keep up with the groove metal, but sometimes they do work when everything isn’t blazing at full steam ahead.
Lyrically, the tracks seem to embrace to more generic side of when bands want to unleash hate. Songs like ‘All Pigs Must Die’ and ‘Fuck That (Silly God)’ may has an at-first impression of shock value, but can easily be passed off as empty substance without much to really say that hasn’t been said already. Unleashing fury in music is one thing, but creating it poetically through lyrics is another thing, and DAYS OF ANGER just seem to go all balls out with everything, but sometimes plunging headlong into something isn’t going to help their career to the fullest. Lots of listeners may love this aggression because it gives them a catharsis, but those looking for a deeper meaning may have trouble finding it within ‘Death Path’.
Tracklist
01. Damaged 2:55
02. All Pigs Must Die 3:32
03. One Way Ticket Down (To Hell) 4:14
04. Symptoms 4:33
05. Stone Cold Killer 4:32
06. Fuck That (Silly God) 4:48
07. Hands Of Evil 5:28
08. Spit On Your Grave 4:49
09. Buried Alive 3:48
10. Life Form 6:57
Line-up
Alex Jonsson - Vocals, Bass
Alf Johansson - Guitar
Kristian Huotari - Drums
Website
http://www.myspace.com/daysofanger
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 6
Sound: 5
Total: 5.5 / 10
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