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vote
6.5
- Bands:
ANCIENT SETTLERS - Duration: 00:43:48
- Available from: 05/17/2024
- Label:
-
Scarlet Records
Streaming not yet available
The Ancient Settlers are a Spanish-Venezuelan band that appeared in 2021 and capable, in a very short time, of releasing three full-lengths and winning a recording contract from the very Italian Scarlet Records.
The group's proposal is mainly based on a melodic death metal sung by frontwoman Argen Death, who intersperses purely growl parts with cleaner and more melodic bursts; this combination has already been made very famous by artists such as Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy, who Argen clearly seems to be inspired by.
After the first listens, this latest work is decidedly valid on the instrumental side, thanks to the excellent musicians capable of moving with versatility, ranging from instrumental intros played in a jumping be-bop as in “The Circle Of Misanthropy”, to move on to decidedly more aggressive flavors of pieces like “Oblivion's Legacy”, in which a double bass drum opens the doors to a guitar that builds the melodic part on a rather convincing riff; the same ingredients are used in “Wounded Heart”, a good first single released by the band complete with video clip.
From the point of view of the vocal parts, the frontwoman's performances are solid on the growls that reach the listener, robust and quite deep, but tend to be annoying when they sharpen into a rasping and almost shrieking style, very reminiscent of Dani Filth's by Cradle Of Filth so to speak; “Stardust Odyssey” is a great example of these two sides of Argen Death's vocal coin.
The parts sung with a clean voice, present in almost all the ten pieces of the album, are instead the negative side of “Oblivion's Legacy” and interrupt the musical continuum of songs that focus on aggression and sonic impact, creating an effect 'pop band' which, in the writer's opinion, could have been avoided. A clear example of the opinion just expressed can be found in songs like “Cosmic Farewell”, a good piece accompanied by a guitar riff of sure impact but which – during the chorus – evolves into a song that could appear in a release by first Tokyo Hotel, making the listener turn up their noses irreparably.
The musical proposal of the Ancient Settlers is that of a group at the beginning of their career and still in full development phase, made up of inspirations taken from master groups of this genre such as Arch Enemy or Dark Tranquility. Although the South American band is still qualitatively (and geographically) very far from the famous 'Gothenburg scene', “Oblivion's Legacy” at the end of the day is an album that, despite some physiological defects, brings home a full pass.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM