Daath - The Hinderers
Roadrunner Records
Industrial/Death Influenced Metal
14 songs (49:09)
Release year: 2007
Daath, Roadrunner Records
Reviewed by Khelek
Archive review

I saw Daath mentioned on a few other metal websites that had positive things to say about the weird mix of modern death and industrial influences on this album, so I decided to check it out for myself. What followed was a confusing journey that I have chronicled here. The songs, at least for the first few tracks on the album are quite one-dimensional. There are heavy, somewhat catchy guitar riffs followed by a fast chorus, then a sometimes interesting, sometimes not guitar solo, and that’s it.

Subterfuge starts with a pretty bland guitar riff, then the vocals start and I'm not really feeling this band at all yet. The 'growling' of Mike Kameron does not sound original or good, it sounds like another wannabe melodic death metal voice. The guitar solo is all right, but nothing to write home about. Let's hope this gets better as it goes along. From The Blind is another alright song, it starts to get the blood pumping, the type of song that I feel would really get the crowd moving at a live show. Quick chugging guitar riffs punctuated by somewhat catchy vocals by Mike Kameron and some occasionally interesting fretwork make this one of the better songs on the album. Cosmic Forge comes in with some keyboard usage, which at least throws in something different but it's executed awkwardly and ends up taking away from it. Under A Somber Sign also gets a bit more interesting with a heavier use of keyboards, sounds like something reminiscent of Arsis. However, they again just seemingly throw some synths or keyboard sounds in randomly to make it more interesting, but it just ends up confusing me. Why am I hearing these random few keyboard notes? Who Will Take The Blame actually caught my attention in the beginning with just the drums playing, but then it transformed into the standard Daath song with more thoughtless guitar chugging and the standard vocals again. Also the synths are handled better this time, but it still sounds out of place. War Born is actually a good song because it is heavy as shit, short, sweet, blows your face off, and gets to the point. If this album was composed of about 9 or 10 songs like this, I feel like it could have been awesome. There’s no screwing around with keyboards or random synth sounds, it’s just raw, fast-paced, pure death metal. I don't even want to mention Death On The Dance Floor, but of course I have to. This is some pseudo-industrial track made for those emo/goth clubs. I cannot imagine a more cliché track, and unfortunately it does seem to fit on this album. If this band wants to be industrial, they need listen to Peter Tagtgren’s Pain. That is the kind of thing they have to live up to. But of course they should have already known that.

This is the band's second album, the first that they've actually done professionally in a studio, and while I have not heard the previous album to compare with this one, I have to question how far this band has progressed since they started. The vocals are one glaring area on this album that just do not impress. It's not that Mike Kameron necessarily has a bad death metal voice, it's just not very interesting. The songwriting also needs a lot of help. Really just a basic, solid direction would be nice.

Killing Songs :
none
Khelek quoted 55 / 100
Other albums by Daath that we have reviewed:
Daath - Futility reviewed by Alex and quoted 20 / 100
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There are 8 replies to this review. Last one on Sat Jan 09, 2010 5:50 pm
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