The Defiled

Daggers

Written by: LF on 07/01/2014 21:50:20

In the summer of 2013 I had the distinct pleasure of watching British five-piece The Defiled as they surprised pretty much every attendee at their show at the Danish metal-festival Copenhell. While looking distinctly scene with their make-up and Black-Veil-Brides-haircuts, this band turned out to have a somewhat heavier sound than most expected, and they managed to hook an entire audience that to begin with had been pretty skeptic to say the least. Basically their genre is a blend of industrial metal and metalcore with a heavy electronic side. "Daggers" from August 2013 is their second album and a completely crowd-funded effort.

Although they've been named "the saviours of U.K. metal", I was not so convinced of the quality of the project during my first couple of listens to this album, as the impression I got from The Defiled's live-show was above all that they put on a good show with their catchy metal-tunes, but not necessarily that their music is really anything out of the ordinary. First track "Sleeper" is a decent song but I can't help twitching my eye a little whenever I hear that dramatic intro-sequence and listen to the flat harmonies in the clean singing. The verses are heavy-hitting and violent as they should be but no matter how hard I try, I can't get into the singing style prominent during most choruses on the album, even though I'd normally praise attempts at mixing screams and clean singing. And it's not because the singer is bad, as the deliciously dark and grungy "Five Minutes" proves to great and dramatic effect.

After a while of being disappointed with this side of the band's sound, I had to give into other parts of it anyway. Everything about a track like "As I Drown" appeals to me (even the clean vocals aren't too bad). It opens with a fast riff suited for any brutal, moshpit-inducing metalcore-song, and after that it provides the listener with good screams, electronics that spice things up but aren't too dominating, and harmonies a la Soundgarden at their best, all in a blend that is very catchy but also sufficiently heavy to really pack a punch. And it's not the only song that intrigues me. "Porcelain" sounds like some unholy alliance between Marilyn Manson and a resurrected Kurt Cobain; both "New Approach" and "Fragments of Hope" are frantic and hard-hitting whirlwinds just as the more mediocre songs on this album should be; "The Infected" even carries some djent elements in it!

All these songs constituting the middle part of "Daggers" show The Defiled at their best and the experiments suit their sound so well instead of the mediocre industrial synth-metal that dominates otherwise. It comforts me to know that although The Defiled would probably never leave their sometimes too dominating synths behind, they don't seem afraid of experimenting and as they are a band of notorious surprise, here's to hoping that they'll take it even further on their next album.

7

Download: As I Drown, Porcelain, Five Minutes, Sleeper
For the fans of: Black Veil Brides, Five Finger Death Punch, Seether, We Butter The Bread With Butter
Listen facebook.com/thedefiled

Release Date 02.08.2013
Nuclear Blast Entertainment

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