Niburta

ReSet (EP)

Written by: EW on 27/01/2015 09:06:14

In the space of 13 minutes on the "ReSet" EP, the fourth overall release from Hungarian troupe Niburta, I feel like I’ve heard a greater variance of styles than my last ten reviews combined. Perfectly displaying the maxim that sometimes less can be more, each of the three tracks veer between genuine and modern strains of folk metal, melodic death metal and metalcore, often with reckless abandon and intemperance towards building dynamics. Taking the EP for review on the proviso of it being a folk metal cut, once the hyper-modern strains of the opening title track rattled through my brain it was quite apparent this sits far from my personal tastes but, more importantly, Niburta need to shed some of their layers and settle on a narrower direction before they can garner anyone else’s attention.

In the first two minutes alone we have the thumping metal sound of a deep bass overlaying punishingly triggered drums, a flute lead, pure Swedish melodeath guitar lines, four distinct vocal styles (harsh male, spoken male, orchestral sung female and more conventional clean female), ‘glitchy’ studio FX staccato pulses, tribal drumming and the acoustic sounds of a kobza. Individual sections rise and fall like the attention span of a toddler as the song struggles to gain any sort of credence, although I did like the more genuine folk middle interlude and the percussion accelerando until the point of re-entry into the territory of triggers. On a personal level I have an intense dislike of the triggered battering opening "Two Faced”, although to try and combine this with a flute track on top is a severe contrast of styles that hardly works here and which I imagine is darn tricky to execute live too.

"Evolution" sheds the primary Eluveitie and Evanescence influence of the opening pair for a straight-forward melodeath style, in doing so forming a more suitable template with which to divert into chanted female vocals and acoustic mid-section as appears to be Niburta's insatiable wont. On the basis of attempting to meld fewer genres this track is the pick of three, but overall "ReSet" is confused, messy and far too reliant on studio technology in an attempt combine the personal influences of every individual band member. Back to the drawing board I’m afraid.

3

Download: Evolution
For The Fans Of: Eluveitie, Evanescence, Orphaned Land, Arkona
Listen: Facebook

Release date 10.01.2015
Self-released

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