It's not too often, when I can write this: This band's death metal sounds like it is a bit different to nowadays' trends, but also generally, simply because it doesn't raise any death metal band names to my head while listening to it. Italian Stillness' Blade perform dark death metal and they have an interesting concept: Every song represents a murder, and every one of them is heard at the beginning of, and during each track. A soundtrack to murders, so to speak. Just like the album's name hints, this is Stillness' Blade's sophomore album.

Looking stylish enough, in an old school way, the album's cover artwork thrilled me to listen to this ASAP. After a horror music / ambient intro, 'Path of Damnation - Break of the Second Seal' blasts with semi-melodic, neo-classical yet churning style death metal with insane drumming that reminds me of Derek "I Love Snare" Roddy. Thankfully there is something else than just snare drum to be heard, but this guy surely ain't a metronome; too much is too much I presume. It partly gives a sensation of being from early-to-mid 1990s, but the drumming lifts it to 21st century. 'Napalm Rain' is far slower at first, but then the chaotic blast bursts occur. The faster parts, or some of them at least, are the album's feebleness, just because of their chaotic feel, which gets exaggerated easily. The blackish mood on some of the songs (e.g. 'Chains of Damnation' and 'Stock of Vengeance') is created by open guitar chords and cold melodiousness. While the band do not sound like a carbon copy, there are so many familiar riffs abound on the album, but on the other hand, the song writing is nothing too typical. However, there is a lot of boring moments throughout the album, 'Materialistic Suffocation' being the worst example of this. I mean, it starts with totally uninspiring riffing, then some weirder stuff happen, which actually works. But overally, very, very patchy stuff! Mainly the vocals are about low growling, but there is some more high-pitched throat abuse to be heard, too. Pronunciation sucks big time, as does words' timing. Okay, it shouldn't sound like rapping, but sometimes a vocals line seems to be so much out of timing, that it hurts.

The production isn't very clear at all. The drums are easily the loudest element of the sound, and then the bass, and both drown a big amount of the guitars and the vocals during faster parts. Horror/ambient parts could have been far, far better. Now they are feel like they're just a boring extra between metal music, even though they are sound-wise much better than on the debut album.

Stillness' Blade try their best with 'Break of the Second Seal...', but it feels partly so soulless. It does work at times, but none of the songs sound like it was complete, perfect. Generally, this is a ugly kick to the microscopic balls of modern trends, so if you're willing to go with more wretched stuff, you could still do much worse I guess. The album kind of pushes me off, but also has its charm...

Note (added on April 1st, 2014): I've been listening to the album quite a lot lately, and it definitely feels more charming now, than over two years ago when I reviewed it. It contains a lot of stuff to dig into, and it is not uninspiring at all. In fact, I raise the score from 5+ to 7. No, this is not a April fool.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/03/2011 19:26