Pofony - Cure of Another Kind
Self Financed
Melodic Death/Metalcore
10 songs (34'45")
Release year: 2006
Pofony
Reviewed by Adam
Amongst the endless slew of unsigned metal bands in this world, it can be quite a chore to gain the notoriety necessary to score a record deal. Finland’s Pofony have chosen to combat this by giving their debut album, Cure of Another Kind, away for free at their website. This is completely legit and encouraged by the band. The individual tracks can be downloaded for free, and all the artwork is posted as well. This is a unique approach, to say the least. Ultimately, though, whether it will pay off will be largely determined by the quality of the music, so let’s get to that right now.

The sound of Pofony is not very difficult to describe. The guitars are loaded with Gothenburg influence, while the vocals range from metalcore sounding shrieks to the occasional clean vocal. I would almost call this conglomeration metalcore, but it has just enough melodic death riffing to keep this from being completely accurate. The opener, Breather begins with some furious and highly enjoyable riffing, making it known that this particular unsigned album does not suffer from shoddy production. The vocals of lead singer Jani are primarily a hardcore shriek, and, although I’ve never been a big fan of this vocal style, they sound adequate and do not detract too much from the fantastic guitar work. Unfortunately, by around track 3, Blade, I started to have the same problem with his vocals as I do with every ‘core singer, that being their tendency to sound so redundant they render themselves almost an afterthought. However, this is offset by the constant wave of great riffs and crystal clear production. Things aren’t always perfect in this regard either, as occasionally Pofony will stop the charge in favor of breakdowns usually heard on a metalcore album. My problem with this is that, although it seems that these breakdowns are intended to be brutal, they actually undermine the more brutal and knifing riffs that generally start each song out. That said, these breakdowns don’t occur often enough to make the metalcore tag stick. On Grave, Jani tries out a whispered and deeper death growl which I liked better than his typical shriek. Perhaps they will incorporate this further into their sound as it definitely stands out. Another vocal experiment occurs on Wolves, as cleaner vocals are used that sound a bit like Dave Mustaine, as well as a period of soft vocal harmonies. Both of these sound pretty good, and lead me to believe that the band is still looking for the perfect vocal mix. This track also contains a more prominent and technical drumming performance that I would’ve liked to hear more of throughout the album. Many times, particularly during the breakdowns, the drums are barely noticeable, which is a shame because Wolves shows that they can be an awesome and powerful aspect when given the chance.

Cure of Another Kind is, in many ways, your typical album from a new band. There are definitely areas of improvement, but there are also many aspects to build on. The production is outstanding, and the riffing is very well done. For me, the vocals were the biggest detractor. Then again, I’ve never really cared for hardcore screams all that much. Nonetheless, I would recommend that fans of melodic death check this album out. After all, the band has been gracious enough to give the album away for free, so what have you got to lose?


Note: In case you didn't catch this in the review, this entire album can be downloaded for free at the band's website, www.pofony.com
Killing Songs :
Breather, Wolves
Adam quoted 60 / 100
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