Dioramic

Supra

Written by: MN on 11/11/2014 15:45:14

Readers at Rockfreaks.net may not have gotten the most favourable impression of Dioramic due to a somewhat negative reception from one of our editors. TL felt that the trio were simply "trying too hard" as quoted from his review of their second release "Technicolor":

"Not an easy task it seems, as these three guys seem hell-bent on making the very most of their three instruments, confusing listeners everywhere and earning them unconventional made-from-scratch labels like prog-hardcore or post-metal."

Already slightly tainted by Tim's opinion, I load on Dioramic's third record "Supra" with a degree of skepticism, where I ultimately set forth to test the verdict of a fellow reviewer to see if these observations still can be identified in their new release, or if they have indeed evolved in the meantime. Hailing from Kaiserslautern, Germany's Dioramic is now a quintet with a full-time keyboard player and a new drummer, seeing as Anton Zaslavski has found mainstream success with his EDM act "ZEDD". Their style is not so readily defined but straddles the borders of post-hard/metalcore, progressive metal with a smidge of djent and elements of alt-rock.

Opening track "Xibalba" is as dark as the name implies, the Mayan underworld and place of fear is clearly an inspiration to the somewhat melancholic but riveting introduction with plenty of bashing riffs, both groovy and unsettling as it is coupled with the screams of despair from vocalist Arkadi. "Carpets On The Walls" introduces a bit more melody as the instrumental cacophony is coupled with some anthemic choirlike vocals that somehow envelope the chaos in a balanced package. The couplet tracks "The Calm Before The Storm" and "The Storm" make sense together but lose their potency on their own, it is essentially doom metal a la Neurosis, but just not as high quality. "The Storm" does however have some interesting synth touches and a strange melodic alteration in a more alt-rock direction along the lines of Muse, a band that obviously has inspired them greatly. "Worth" continues in a similar vein, but ultimately takes the price as one of the best songs where melody and instrumental experimentation have found equilibrium. "Melancholia" on the other hand wins the price for the most boring track on the record, while "Logbook" intrigues with curious elements like an 8-bit solo out of nowhere.

It is clear that Dioramic have progressed a lot since their previous release and seem to have retired the asinine approach of packing chock-a-block madness in a short space of time where it indeed does become confusing for the listener. I must however agree with TL on the fact that seldomly do I find myself being able to distinguish much between the songs and often they end up sounding painfully similar, despite having some killer tracks involved. I thus merit Dioramic an improvement grade and hope to see them further mould their sound into consistency.

Download: Worth, The Storm, Xibalba
For The Fans Of: Between The Buried And Me, The Contortionist, Muse
Listen: facebook.com

Release date 15.09.2014
Pelagic Records

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