Amoral – Beneath
Genre: Metalcore, Rock
Label: The End Records
This album came out of nowhere, almost literally. I got it from the post office after it was sent to the old E-MetalSpace address. My guess is they (or the PR person from The End Records) saw my old blog on MySpace and thought that the attached address was still good. But whatever, right? It worked out for everyone.
Anyhow, Amoral is a five piece band from Helsinki, Finland that has put out four full-length albums that have been met with moderate success. Well, their earlier stuff anyway. According to Metal-Archives.com, Amoral’s earlier work was technical death metal… shit. I wish I received one of those album instead of this thirteen track hiccup in common sense. How can a band go from technical death metal to watered down metalcore-ish-ness? Mind you, this is all assuming that the information I received is accurate since M-A.com refers to these guys currently as power metal. Waaaay off whoever slapped that label on.
Amoral’s style is definitely more in the realm of rock than that of metalcore though. Think of a far less progy Psyke Project with a weaker vocalist. It’s a bit difficult to critique this album any further since Beneath is just so mediocre or just plain simple. However, the one thing that really stands out do to it’s lack of mediocrity and simplicity: about twenty percent of the guitar structure. Occasionally you’ll hear a masterfully placed and as nifty as you can get flourish. No good solos. No memorable riffs. Just an occasional guitar squeal that can make you smile.
And no, this album isn’t terrible. I’ve heard FAR worse than this by bands once thought to be infallible. But I can’t help but feel that I missed out on something awesome if I would of discovered these guys a few years earlier in their TDM days.
Overall: I’d advise anyone who likes their metalcore more laid back and ethereal to pick up this album. If that doesn’t sound even remotely appealing, then you’ll do well pretending that his album doesn’t exist.
5/10
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