Genre: Metalcore
Country: New Zealand
Year: 2015
Tracklist:
1. Pretentious
2. Visions
3. Reaper
4. Portrait Of A Dying World
5. Wasteland
6. Back To Life
7. The Fear
8. The Demons
9. Brick By Brick
10. Heart Of Hatred
11. The Rain (ft. Matt Murphy)
Subsistence is a new and promising self-recorded, self-produced, female fronted metal band from New Zealand. It is, for now, a pretty much unknown Metalcore band, but I’m sure not for too long. Before starting to shit all over this album, it's important to say that this is a good work, and one that every Metalcore fan should listen to. It shines thanks to an outstanding composition, despite some flaws. It's such a good album that I can't help but to try to spread the word of its existence. I'm sure that any help is well appreciated by the band. Because my intention is only to contribute to create better music, I truly hope the following critics will be well received, if they manage to reach any of the band members.
“Portrait Of A Dying World” is like breathing fresh air in the middle of an oversaturated metal scene. Today, there are so many bands out there, maybe more than willing listeners, and so many of them are so much alike, that discovering this special work is awesome. Yes, it is Metalcore, there is no doubt about it, but within the boundaries of the genre, the band’s style excels thanks to good and fresh ideas. Then, if you are reading this and haven't already listened to this album, click one of the links below to do so, you won't regret it.
This awesome album has eleven full-length songs and plays for about 51:37. It has then, a very good amount of content. Considering its quality and its price (about $6.45 in bancamp.com, physical CD), I say it's a great deal. So, there should be no pretext to not buy this work, unless you don't like it, of course.
The song structure is something to be praised. Even though it obviously follows the pop scheme, and therefore there is always a chorus in every track, it varies sometimes substantially. For example, in "Pretentious" the chorus repeats only two times and the riffs are something more like two bridges. Something similar occurs in "Visions", "Reaper" and some others. In general, it's hard to see clearly the AABA song form, which may be a little confusing or even non catchy to some listeners, but for me it's just great.
The album structure however is not as interesting. As already said, there is no intro, interlude or coda, just full songs. This may be a good thing in terms of content amount but it also may be a downside in terms of pace variation. Also, there is no track that may serve as a pace changer, besides the middle track "Wasteland". This is a direct consequence of the absence of deep contrasts from one song to another. This is the only let down in composition. While it brings an overall novelty to the genre, it remains too fixed on a single style.
This compilation reminds me so much of the first and self-titled Killswitch Engage’s album. Not because of its style, sound or composition, but because of its big implied potential. Just like in the KSE’s work, the sound of “Portrait Of A Dying World” is crappy, and the musician’s performance is not as polished as one could hope. In both works, the package is not as pretty as its content. KSE released maybe the best Metalcore album of all times, “Alive Or Just Breathing”, two years after, mostly using polished songs from, precisely, their first one. It's surprising the difference that a good audio and a good vocal and instrumental performance can make. So, what I’m trying to say here, is that this album seems like a rough diamond that may shine like few, if it is properly polished. I truly hope to listen to some of these tracks revamped, in the future. What are those rough edges? Let's see.
The most evident problem in this compilation is the sound. It's just bad, feels cheap and ruins, up to some point, the otherwise nice experience. The drums are flat, undefined and sometimes very shaded by the other instruments (what is very extraordinary in a Metalcore production). The guitars are lacking crispness and the vocals clarity. Thus, I can say there were surely some issues in the mixing process, but it seems that some ones occurred throughout the recording also. The volume is too low for today standards, so the mastering was also poorly done. I know, many things can go wrong producing music, but in this case, some extra care (money, maybe) was needed. Of course, we are talking here about an independent and self-produced band, so these problems are not to be taken too seriously. Even more, I'm sure that someone will like the audio as much as I dislike it.
Other problems are related to the clean vocals. While the growls and screams are OK, the clean vocals, both male and female, are constantly missing the right notes, sounding dissonant. They also lack technical brilliance and strength. One could say that they fit the special Subsistence's musical style, and they do up to some point, however I can't but think they represent a missed opportunity of better music. This may be a bigger issue than the previous one because of its wider impact.
Those are the most evident issues that this album suffers from. They may be unforgivable to some listeners but behind its imperfect face lays a much richer and better work than some of the most iconic Metal and Metalcore bands out there. Above all, it's an enjoyable work. Even if there are still many problems that need to be fixed in order to make this work shine as it should, right now, it's a great piece of art.
I congratulate the band members on this work. It's hard to self produce and publish, but they did it, and in a great way.
Bancamp (Full Album)
YouTube (Full Album)
Rating: 7/10
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