Four albums in and Ireland’s Coldwar takes some massive steps towards defining their own niche within the cosmos of death metal littered with the remnants of past stars and upcoming new proto stars and these guys shine far more brightly than the others with this breathtakingly outlandish and diverse album that starts ominously with the gentle cymbal tapping and feedback on “Heart Of Darkness”. The hook that follows is modern but reeks of old school death metal. The moment this riff hits your ears it will draw you in remorselessly to drive home its caustic melody. The guitar sound is sharp, incisive and focused to razor sharp precision. As the album moves into “Ether Child” the experimentation is subtle but indelibly marks permanent slashes across your psyche. It’s not overly complex but it feels it due to the way the whole album shifts from one section to another seamlessly.
When do bands move from the realms of being influenced to be influential is up for debate but Coldwar are bordering that coveted influential position extremely closely with this album. The songs are powerfully written with desperate emotive power underpinning the bands ability to carve out riff after riff of memorable quality. “Mazu Awakens” has Morbid Angel stamped on it and I mean the nuances of the way the track evolves not the actual songs MA have written in the past and I include the bands last offering in that comparison, but more so this album has the industrial tenets of Morgoth’s “Odium” album, which I’m not sure if the band has heard at all. The metronomic tempo changes are wondrous to hear, each pivoting on a knife edge and plunging into pandemonium but the whole album is held together by the superb song writing.
“The Falcon Cannot Hear The Falcon” starts with an eerie elongated acoustic guitar intro before bursting into animation with a bellowing vocal performance that has post metal touches but just that much more aggressive and direct. The bass line on “Consciousness Paralysis” after the distortion introduction is great, really loose before the injection of double kick hits the accelerator a tad for that crushing head banging melody expected in death metal. The increase in pace is expected and welcomed when the vocals are barked through almost crust like.
This is an ambitious and unique death metal album, one that shifts the band into realms touched by others in the past but forgotten about over the years but thankfully Coldwar has successfully recorded an album that will test many during 2014 for creative power and song writing prowess.
(9/10 Martin Harris)
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