Adversarial

All Idols Fall Before The Hammer

Written by: PP on 01/09/2010 03:19:20

Adversarial are a blackened death metal band from Toronto, Canad, who have just put out their debut full length "All Idols Fall Before The Hammer". It's an album that, for once, can be summed up in just two words: snare drum. It's a shoebox recording where sound levels and production techniques are an unknown planet in another galaxy, causing an annoyingly high level of snare drum echoing in a hollow way across the soundscape, largely drowning anything and everything underneath it. They certainly don't make it easy for the listener, as can be seen in diverse internet fora where people are discussing on how to use a software equalizer to make the album sound better. Whoever stood behind the knobs for this one ought to be ashamed of himself. Unless of course that was the point all along, which isn't too far out of a thought considering how seriously menacing and extreme Adversarial's overall expression is - it sounds like an apocalypse in places.

Occasionally, it's possible to hear a couple of solid *SNARE* riffs, deviating from the usual serpentine *SNARE* formula *SNARESNARESNARE* to something a little more unique *SNARE SNARE SNAREEEEEEEEE* to the genre, but as I'm sure you already figured out from my hopeless attempts at humour, these are drowned underneath the snare drum. And that's more like the rule than just a couple of exceptions. It's a big shame because from the little that you can hear, the guitarists are obviously very talented, as is the drummer himself. It sucks that the production makes it so darn difficult to hear any more of his range than just the snare drum, but such is life, unfortunately. Luckily, it also means that we don't have to hear much to the vocalist, who is otherworldly in his ability to sound like a steaming pile of dog shit, if such a thing could possibly emit noise. Breathing heavily in the microphone and attempting to pass it as growling does not a good vocalist make.

It seems like the reviewer core are all in agreement, though, that underneath the mess known as the *cough* production *cough* of the album, lies an absolute gem of extreme metal for those who require twisted guitars and punishing death metal to be a little more than just blast beat domination all the way through. I agree, but I just can't find it in me to award any bonus points for an album that's textbook example of horrendously shitty production.

5

Download: Death.Rot.Monolith, Thralls
For the fans of: Incantation, Morbid Angel
Listen: Myspace

Release date 15.08.2010
Dark Descent Records

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