ANATA — The Conductor's Departure (review)

ANATA — The Conductor's Departure album cover Album · 2006 · Technical Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
UMUR
"The Conductor´s Departure" is the 4th full-length studio album by Swedish technical death metal act Anata. The album was released through Wicked World (a subsidary to Earache Records) in June 2006.

The music on the album is technical death metal with enough twists and turns to keep even the most experienced fan of the genre busy. The playing on the album is astonishing to say the least. The sound production is powerful and detailed too so that part of the album is well functioning. If you ask me there´s one major issue with "The Conductor´s Departure" though and it´s a pretty serious issue. The songwriting is patchy. By patchy I mean that the tracks contain multible riffs and sections and tempo- and time signature changes in spades but it´s like there´s no master plan. The riffs succeed each other in an endless stream without leaving and impact and the tracks generally lack memorability and hooks. After the album ends all I can remember is that the band are extremely well playing and that the album is well produced. I can´t remember any of the tracks. Anata are as such original sounding on "The Conductor´s Departure" (which is something they lacked on their first couple of more generic sounding US influenced death metal releases), but being original doesn´t always mean you are able to deliver something that´s catchy and enjoyable to listen to.

One of the things that could have worked well is the way Anata´s two guitarists compliment each other. There are almost no unison playing on the album. At all times the two guitars play different things. The problem is that it sometimes sound like the two guitars are playing the riffs from two different tracks at the same time. It sounds very confusing and when you add to that the almost constant tempo- and time signature changes, the soundscape becomes too busy for it´s own good. We´re talking death metal here and I expect brutality and relentless raw power, but as a consequence of all the twists and turns on this album, the music feel powerless. Add to that a very monotone growling vocal delivery and there´s just very little that´s interesting on "The Conductor´s Departure" besides the impressive technical level of the musicianship. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.
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