Survival-Shayda

The cover of the album looks like a crazed combination of things. A sky? The ocean? Is that possibly an old turn of the century wheel peaking through the frame? It has a very gritty feel to it, that's for damn sure. The question is, does this music?

Track 1. Living With Depression- An instantly heavy crunch invades your mind. A set of sharp aggressive riffs give way to a catchy beat. The vocals seem warm yet with a subtle rasp, it's almost like spoken word, but it is at the end. If you take the song one way you might say it sucks, but if you look deeper, it's more than that, it has a very dark, yet cool and creative message, wishing this song was much longer, cool stuff, heavy for a brief short period, it stirs the deepest depths of your mind.

Track 2. Walls- A growing cadence of distortion marches in declaring war upon your ears. The vocals are rough sounding yet impressive. Clarity quite good. Harmonies have a different yet off setting feeling from the lead vocals, though they contrast with them very well. This track is short in length also, syncopation is decent but the track never swell's out and get's fully to where it snags and keeps your attention, wish there was more here to well hear. So yeah, with what I've heard so far I like, just a bit disappointed that this track is so short. So far good interesting appealing material.

Track 3. Surface of the Sky- Heavy wounds appear to shine deep, and still seem present. A pronounced thumping pounds across this sky. A hard nosed crunch penetrates the fuzz in your ear drums. Good, tight percussive beats, also a very deliciously evil bass line that trickles inwards snap your neck into place. I really like that different vocalist that comes in to back up the lead vocalist, very off sounding but I think that they really have something catchy there, very interesting, crazy, with an entertaining feel about it. For the most part the track ends up being slow, some parts are good and decent. At first your all excited with what you hear in the beginning, especially with those exciting as hell guitar hooks. Its a deep soul eroding feel. At times the song begins to sort of seem off it's rocker, completely losing itself, in the process it's groove. And then you wonder, what the fuck happened? Something great just fizzled out, but those are the doom elements of the track I assume. The melodies that followed were more darker, things that would make you question the sanity of mankind, and reality itself, sending the listener... hell the audience on a head trip, no a mind fuck. They feel like hints of genius at work.

Track 4. Pose- A crisp rumbling of tasty riffs begin this face splitting madness. There's a bit of a slow churn of heavy riffs. An eclectic yet heavy drum beat. Oh yes, hell yes to that tasty bass line. It just leans out and thumps your skull! The song at first is odd heavy and catchy, but the ending is even more odd, and cool, digging the dubbed vocals that are spoken words taken from a movie or something, telling some type of story, the slender backing track of music is quite creepy. A thought lends it self to you that it's all fake, it's a show, it's a put on, or is it? Another piece of music that really get's your thoughts turning. Not just a crazed heavy crunch melodic driven piece, but a minding bending one at that!

Track 5. Under The Knife- A quick spurt of a melodic guitar sputters and leads into a show of force mighty, but it stumbles here and there with a dramatic crunch that follows. The vocalist echos about with his daunting presence, and mightily so, like a mad man on the prowl. Digging the slow groove. Decent time change, and tight parts as well. Another track that I wish would have been longer. What was here though was a good showing of things to come, just wish the tracks were longer, and the songs more drawn out. They seem short and quite abrupt.

Track 6. Set Me Free- Sudden and heavy doses of heavy metal rhythm force they way onto your ears. The drums barge in with a tight crisp welcoming presence, though slow, they contain a tasty groove. Loving the occasional drawn back feel in the track. It is not overpowering, but just enough to give you a second level of enjoyment within the track. Excellent syncopation here, as well as vocal melodies. The creative mad man on vocals is at it again, quite a talented group here. They have a raw yet sanity piercing sound that conveys a feeling of forced attack. Digging those vocals that come in here, they sound off yet so damn awesome! The build up is killer, digging the hell out of the thrown in palm mutes with the solo, and then it drives into a massive rhythm hook. Things on the electric guitars go nuts, and fade into black, perfect!

Track 7. Buried In Time- A quick clatter of the sticks, gives this thing LIFE. Heavy foreboding riffs quickly give into a mixing drum beat that takes you on an eclectic grooving ride. A doom feeling, is in the air, but at times an impressive show of force is as well. The low bass effect in the track gives you a feeling that maybe you've reached the end of the world. The real world spoken vocals, are cool and creepy as hell, quite effectively used, and placed in the perfect places. A delicious, evil and fucked up track all rolled into one, especially with the old lady at the end, seemingly begging for mercy, but turning out to be the devil in disguise of some sort. Track 8. No Hope- Hard nosed riffs stumble quite well with a drum line into a melodic foray of self defining objectiveness. Passionate yet monster like vocals fill the track across the depths of your mind. The riffs seem to turn directions. The tasty bass comes out to play, as your ears are dragged into three directions of awesome. You are treated to a subtle yet crunchy groove. The track eventually fades upon the main hooks of the song with the backing vocals. Another interesting track though short lived, leaving you wanting just a bit more.

It's been a fun review. I've sampled a fun bass, some eclectic, tight, and powerful drums. A few guitars that deliver punching syncopated well timed grooves, that grab your ears and don't let go, not only when heavy, but when they delve into the doom sense of things. And the vocals, all good here. The lead vocalist is a monster and I mean that in the best sense of the world, very pure talented raspy but you can definitely understand him, enjoyed the passion and his reach. The backing vocals though not overused, were delivered in the correct spots, dark and dull, but I think they match up well against the lead vocalist very well giving a great contrast. And the other vocalist, that sounded off, but in my opinion added a perfect 'flavor' to the tracks that this person, was added to, great work, done just right. Keep it up! The mix of the songs seemed pretty good, I liked the balance of the instruments in the mixes throughout. Everything seemed to be where it should at the volumes it should be at. Overall interesting material, but some did not seem to groove or develop long enough. There is some good, yet interesting, and eclectic material here. Through out the album there was a superb use of spoken word vocal situations to add special dramatic accent to the songs. Overall I wish the songs would have been longer and developed more. They felt a bit abrupt, that feels like my biggest complaint here, otherwise pretty damn decent material. 7/10.

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