Melodic death metal is usually a trade, where a band succeeds well, or stumbles before one can say "circumbilivagination". However, there are some bands, that are so-so, and Finland's Trakooma belong to that category.

These guys have been playing together since the end of 2008, and apparently they've spent a lot of time at their rehearsal place. Playing-wise there's nothing wrong here; it's tight, proficient and even clever at times. I like the "wandering" bass, that does not follow all the riffing. But, but... If only the production job on this self-production was as good... It's not a total crash landing, actually far from it, but the sound is a tad clogged and rather thin. The instruments are still audible, but blandly and quite powerlessly low growled vocals (another style is metalcore-ish squalling) are there just to choke the soundscape. The demo-level production prevents the music's full potential from emerging. The last thing to mention about the production is the Japanese-style cover art, which is way too immature. Hey, a tit a day saves the day? No, not this time...

And now to the most important thing: The music. 'Six Feet of Shame' starts the game with fast yet melodic style, which sounds like European branch that developed from melodic Gothenburg death metal. Well, that what it is anyways, without any sign of Finns such as Children Of Bodom, Eternal Tears Of Sorrow or Kalmah. Dark Tranquillity style twin guitar riff and/or lead work is in heavy use here. There's a lot of shredding for sure. Tempo changes happen almost all the time, from blasting to mid-paced headbangable ramming, and even some math-influenced beats are heard here and there. Mathcore style guitar playing is also heard, so the album has this modern edge to it. 'Disillusion' enters more brutal territory with its more aggressive and darker approach, but the album continues mostly in melodic way. The songs include very good parts, but then again, it's simple to notice boring and worse ones, which aren't rare in the songs. The problem is, that some of the songs tend to turn into indifferent pieces too easily, without much of things to grip to. Thankfully the album includes such songs as 'Six Feet of Shame', 'Hold Your Hate' and 'Lost and Confused'. The music does not sound like demented brutality, though.

'Demented Brutality' is tightly performed, but badly produced. Trakooma have a lot of promise in them, for sure, but in the end, they do not anything very individual. An okay, well-above average platter for those who are looking for metal sounding like European branch of melodic Gothenburg death metal, but the music style itself has been so overexploitated already.

Rating: 6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
01/08/2012 12:39