DIE - Relentless Pain

Founded last year, the band was already booked for important shows among which Ålborg Metal Festival, where they played along with big names such as Kataklysm or Entombed.

For most metalheads outside Denmark, Danish death metal means something that gravitates more or less around the melodic brand created by Illdisposed, garnished with syncopated rhythms. This is definitely not the case of Die. Their debut EP - Relentless Pain - released at the end of 2005 (the band being formed in spring, the same year), delivers a highly addictive style, meant to please fans of both American and Swedish death metal schools. Spiced with guitar technicalities, rising every now and then from the ground of a clever mix of rhythmic strings, hurling in unison with a forceful and precise drumming - one doesn’t need to be a psychic to realize that the future will be with Die.

Among other merits, the unity of their productions, visible in the thematic insistence on which the identity of each song builds up and in the natural entwining of the tunes and lyrics, cannot go unnoticed. With its psychotic solos and an alternate fronting of drums and strings, Bonecrusher is made of crushing riffs and remarkably powerful vocals. Relentless Pain pushed out my speakers in force, at a speedy pace that doesn’t kill however the melody, nor diminishes the feeling - a lesson we use to admire in technical bands such as Necrophagist or Cryptopsy. Shortly put, it’s pure relentless, reaching peaks of pure pain. Finally Life Eraser builds on an obsessive series of fast riffs, fitting perfectly the succession of apocalyptic images in the lyrics. Whirling riffs complete the picture, leaving behind the feeling of an uncontrollable fury, pushing to the edge of insanity.

I know that “catchy is not metal” is almost a topos among metalheads. But who cares when catchy and addictive means quality death metal? Relentless Pain is a recipe for music with identity, in an EP that is unitary, thematic, but not monotonous.

G.A.S. Nota: 9