Slave Zero Reviews
Metalireland.com
It hasn’t been an easy few years for Slave Zero, with lineup changes and mounting delays making life generally difficult for the Kilkenny quintet. Their last full length album, despite excellent presentation and sound that punched way above its weight, was a wholly pedestrian affair, relying on tried and tested death metal modes played to only a perfunctory standard. That however was four years ago, and in the interim it would appear that they have been tightening nearly every single screw in their ship. To say that ‘The Pain Remits’, their new cd with a revitalised lineup and more focused sound, shows heartening improvement would just be patronising. The real fact of the matter is that they have blown themselves and some of their peers out of the water in developmental terms, and can now be considered genuine contenders in the race to get Irish death metal out of the thematic stone age.
Everything is better than before. ‘The Defiant Stand’ had two glaring complaints: it was far too long, and the playing was sloppy. Both of these ills have been cured, and with quite some determination. Ultra aggressive vocal delivery now borders on the New York school of real-world death metal delivery akin to the likes of Internal Bleeding and Pyrexia, which when galvanised with the band’s ever present affection for Obituary and Suffocation (both of whose influences are writ large in here) creates a solid lockdown. Though the drum rolls could be improved, and perhaps need a little diversity in character, the tickering hi-hats of ‘Soul Of Ruin’ recall fondly the ghost of ‘Spiritual Healing’. With the song’s fluid Andy LaRocque guitar tone boasting the influence of the later Death oeuvre, Slave Zero have added melodic depth and variety to what have could have easily been a standard mosh only affair.
The band have been wise in electing to give the listener a concise rather than lengthy blast. In truth it would be hard to sit through too much more, even in spite of the increased variety, and the vocals could benefit from more composure to this end. But the injection of brief synth backings, clean guitar and well placed leads into a reasonably technical death metal rumpus that veers from simple beatdown to detailed riffwork has seen them through. There remains a need to work on overall structural coherence, but a noted increase in their gigging schedule will doubtless help trim the excess. Vintage death metal influences combined with a massive increase in quality since last time mean Slave Zero are now a band to watch, and their next one could be something genuinely serious on the basis of this.
3.8 / 5 - Ciaran Tracey ::: 10/08/06