Four albums in, and I haven’t encountered German band Kadavrik before. After a few blasts of ‘Grimm I & II’, I can see why. It’s melodic death metal you see, and I’ve always tended to stay away from overly melodic and symphonic styles of metal. But the spec for this one sounded intriguing.
…An extreme metal band exploring the narratives of some lesser-known works of the Brothers Grimm…
I checked out the album trailer on YouTube, and it hit like a punch in the face. Unfortunately, after listening to the entire album, it seems that the punch in the face also includes…petty name-calling…a playful fumble…a quick handshake…and tea and biscuits afterwards.
On the band’s bio, it states that for this album (their first for a fledgling company), “Kadavrik settles a score with pigeonholing”. They have done this by literally throwing EVERYTHING into this release. Pretty much every track is so crammed full of changes in mood/style/tone/technique/tempo, that it starts to get tiresome and annoying after a while. Some of it even starts to sound like DragonForce falling down the stairs.
The album may only last a scant 43 minutes, but you’ll swear that you’ve just heard the bands entire back catalogue in the form of some kind of infernal Jive Bunny master mix. This is a shame, as the lack of musical cohesion undoubtedly takes away from ‘Grimm’s themes and narratives, which seem quite interesting.
It all starts quite strongly though. A good punchy vocal introduces ‘Wither Away’, and then we’re treated to some full-on death metal, but when the pace subsides and the keyboards are introduced, things start to get convoluted. This seems quite forgivable at this point because opening numbers are always eager to impress, but over the course of the next couple of tracks, the albums schizophrenic tendencies begin to get quite tiring, with the chaotic ramble of ‘Ruins’ being the worst offender.
The 4th track ‘7 Years’ is actually pretty decent. An effective and rather cinematic sounding instrumental that uses the kind of dynamics that most of us can appreciate. But alas, the enjoyment is short lived, as the second half of the album propels us into more muso wankery.
There’s the aimless piano tinkling of ‘Queen Of Sylvan Lands’ and ‘Shuttered’, the chest-beating bass harmonics of ‘Voids’, and…what’s that…a saxophone at the end of the closing track ‘Helix’? Oh, for fuck’s sake.
This is clearly for fans of music that’s far too complicated to enjoy.
My head hurts.
(2/10 Stuart Carroll)
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