Rise

Production: Bass is heavy, and although the overall vision is muddy the vocals and instruments stand through clearly individually although somewhat overlapped.

Review: Simple and heavy death metal from this Los Angeles band builds a unique sequence of violent motion rhythms into its voice of expression, with which it makes surprisingly engaging songs that gratify the popular side of death metal. Strict power chord formations comprise songs which illustrate the range and power of a simple riff through rolling verses and spanning chorus counterpoint rhythms.

Tempos range from the standoffish marches like those Unleashed once used to blasting grindcore mayhem, and over it all the iron jaw of the vocalist paces abrasive lyrics with power and sometimes, unexpectedly forgivable melodrama. Although not technical wizardry the ambition to compose and play intricate music is here, although enacted only in the death metal space so far discovered, brings variation and intensely personalized passages to some songs.

Percussion is smooth in transition and familiar with the material, and uses a careful balance of rhythms to propel this indefinition of this stuff which sometimes resembles the blasting speed-metal derivate of New York style death but then moves into smoother passages like older European bands, and sometimes invokes the basic structural metal of Death. Lead guitar wanders for tonal supremacy but provides melodic reinforcement to the rhythms moving underneath, which change with the emotional seasons of each song. That this has been accomplished on a demo suggests there is room above for Rise to expand this sound to its natural conclusions.

Production: Dark heavy and slightly obscured, leaden velvet in the ears - all instruments are clearly represented and vocals are clear, sounding slightly rinsed but keeping drum and guitar clarity with present but often indistinguishable bass. Similar to the production of Unleashed's first album, this ambiguity brings out a darkness in the guitars while maintaining their fundamental detuned approach to sonic affinity.

Review: As if in the death pursuit of a hunt Rise approximate the essence of metal through quintessential rhythm rising above the mixture of heavy metal and technical death metal methodology forming the foundation of this music. Tearing a raw sheaf of metal the band integrate deconstructive memes with speeding drums and edged vocals, immersing the listener in a space of explosive resonance before descending into cleated power chord blasting and fast rivers of notes scrambling over chords to melt in melodic demise.

The resulting personalized interpretation of metal, a unique sound that bridges extreme strobing power chord blast death/grind to faster oldstyle death metal which flows molten between the framework of percussion points laid down in chanting rhythm by the drums, lets this band create when appropriate and hold ground militarily when not, forming an ambient work of death metal that is pound-for-pound equivalent in proficiency to hyped "defining" metal bands.

For all of the complexity of output simple variations are the core of this music and their recombinance builds tiered layers of compositional decisions that sometimes resolve to consonance and just as often belch vomit on the grave of an ancestor. Variations in riff patterning here are a grimoire of speed and death metal technique brought forth in a new light through implanting overriding rhythm in songs and driving it hard with vocals and emphatic guitar augmentations.

Rise are expert at tucking cycles and beat patterns into riffs and breakpoints between riffs, shifting tempos to introduce changes, and patterning their songs after some fundamental quality to each riff and phrase that is beyond death or black or speed metal yet an essential interpretation of the metal genre as a whole. A solid rhythmic understanding ties the riffing and structural variations together, making cohesive songs that hit hard without need for anything other than solid, original death metal. Experimentation in mixing melodies and more advanced harmonic concepts flavors the music with tantalizing futures written in cryptic keys. Of note are guitar soloings feature sweep technique to produce a glissando of descending scale.

Most powerful is the interaction between drums and rhythm guitar, and their ability to counter emphasize each other. Bass follows the guitar lines and gives additional rhythmic strength when supporting percussive rhythms. Stylistic influences on this album range from the standard simple death metal beaten out in simple chords under a ricochet double bass to blasting grindcore, with influences from previous metal styles and other bands. Riffs are somewhat boxy but rhythmically aligned, as in the style of Demigod, with some heavy strumming like newer Sinister or older Entombed.

Although some of the patterning seems familiar, Rise are distinctive and play with a very free-ranging American sound that incorporates a diversity of tempo and timbre in songs that produce a high frequency of variation in riff patterns. This album speaks a good word for those in the death metal domain by ratifying some of the technique and style that others have shunned for more refined-seeming subgenres, but Rise work in style to make new elements out of tradition as well as newer patterns they have innovated for the sake of supporting some of the ambitions of their style.