adg211288 Casting Ruin (2014) is the fourth full-length album by US death metal act Solace of Requiem. It's been a while since these guys were heard of; their last album was The Great Awakening (2010). On Casting Ruin the band returns with a new guitarist, Richard Gulczynski, who joins bassist/vocalist Jeff Sumrell (the only original member at this point) and drummer Dave Tedesco. I've followed the band a bit in the past but the only previous album of theirs I've heard in full is Solace of Requiem (2004), their debut.

As far as death metal acts go a lot has changed in the last ten years for Solace of Requiem. Maybe it has something to do with the line-up changes the band has had along the way, but Solace of Requiem was altogether a rather 'straight' death metal affair with a bit of a technical edge, whereas Casting Ruin is a much more varied experience with a stronger presence of technical playing, a noticeably more blackened feeling that extends to a mix of both high and low growling by Sumrell and even some backing symphonic elements can be picked up on in some places.

But while Casting Ruin is technically the more adventurous record of the two from Solace of Requiem that I've heard I can't ignore the fact that I enjoyed their debut quite a bit more. Not that Solace of Requiem was anything overly special to begin with, but it was a solid and enjoyable death metal effort from start to finish, one I still have a bit more appreciation for than most releases of that kind of death metal. On Casting Ruin despite the additional ideas that the band is using these days I've found the songs to blur together a bit more and there aren't any that really scream 'standout' to me the way a track like Beyond Grace did from the debut.

I just get the feeling that I'm listening to a bunch of guys who are trying too hard to stand out rather than playing safe and sticking with what they're good at. I respect that of course, don't get me wrong here. Arguably it's better to try and fail than to make the same album over and over again, but out of Solace of Requiem and Casting Ruin I know which Solace of Requiem album I'm more likely to spin again after this point.

On paper what Solace of Requiem did here should appeal to me more than their earlier, undeniably more generic work, but even though the ideas are right the song writing just falls short of producing something that's interesting beyond a spin or two. The end result is far from being terrible but I don't feel that I can recommend it too much either. A 3 Star rating seems fairest.

62/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/solace-of-requiem-casting-ruin-t3717.html)

Time Signature Bio-metallurgy...

Genre: technical death metal

The follow-up to The Great Awakening, Casting Ruin is the fourth full-length effort from the American death metal act Solace of Requiem. As the listener will quickly realize upon listening to the album, Solace of Requiem's brand of death metal falls under the rubric of technical death metal.

The opener 'Defiling the Spectrum' pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the abum with its flurries of blastbeats and mind-boggling shifts and changes, sprinkled with sweeps and hyper-technical riffage. Thus, pretty much all the technical death metal clichés are to be found on the album, and it might be tempting to write it off – like I almost did after my first listen – as impressive but not really innovative. However, such a rejection would be too hasty, for Solace of Requiem actually do take their music beyond mere instrumental wankery. To their credit, they successfully integrate elements from black metal, including screechy vocals (which are in interplay with guttural growls) and melodic tremolo-picking. Thus, the band manage to generate a bit of atmosphere which stands in both interesting contrast and balance with the brutality of the technical death metal elements. To top off an onslaught of blackened brutality, the listener is treated to a mesmerizing instrumental in the form of 'Bio-Alchemy'.

Naturally, the level of musicianship is very high, and the instrumental performance is top notch across the board. The vocal style combines screechy screams with guttural growls, and here I actually prefer the former. The production is okay, but it could be a fad more well-defined.

Fans of technical death metal should definitely check out Casting Ruin, because it feature all the stalwart features of technical death metal (as well as the more clichéd ones), but also brings fresh blood and new elements into the genre.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)