Scarve – Irradiant

As it seems France has a lot more to offer, and i thought Gojira was a one time fluke, Scarve play a somewhat familiar mixture of technical death metal, with hints of industrial, and other “electronic metal” related sounds, i know it’s strange to say, but their music tends to go for the formula the likes of Darkane and In Flames go, it has to have a more “clean” chorus to grab peoples attention, it’s not a bad thing per say, Darkane master it to almost perfection.

So the album starts with “Mirthless Perspectives” and it’s quite a good start, it goes from angry as it gets, to a more clean vocal chorus, with loads of blasting in between, that is until the guitar solo, that although well conceived, it just killed it for me, it seemed out of place, well next track is “An Emptier Void” starts with another blasting/groovy death, and after 2 “mockup” chorus, we get into a calmer part, and a quite good one i might say, with a melodic eerie feel to it, then it resumes to a more shout/blast, and yet again the same feeling, the eerie part just doesn’t fit the blasting, it feels like they are 2 different tracks, now the title track “Irradiant”, uhhh this one starts with some heavy blasting in between slower sections, with a extremely simple catchy chorus, finally a good track, then comes “Asphyxiate” that brings a more jumping/groovy sound, more in tune with groove/math metal, that added with the guest appearance of Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah fame, brings this one home as being one of the best of the album, then comes up “Hyperconscience” again a good track, it has a nice melodic death metal feel to it.

“The Perfect Disaster”, you can say this one is the calm song, actually after the initial intro, it’s actually a slow burn metal tune, almost stoner metal, then “Molten Scars” returns us to the blasting, and that swedish feel, loads of aggression building up to some more clean cut chorus and some in between guitar solo, then when i thought the album was on it’s way out, they sneak this one in, in the form of “Fireproven”, really nice, loads of interest here, hell even the solo works great, this is one 6 minute hellblazing track, that drives us to the end with “Boiling Calm” that even though as a lot of interesting bits, it’s a bit of a mess and gives me a little “bitter end” finish.

Retention is the key word here, sure it’s catchy, has great pace, loads of wacky riffs, impressive drumming, technicality, hell even flare, some of the tracks are surprisingly brutal, and we all love that shit, but as Psycroptic latest, and in my view, that’s just not enough, this isn’t metal school, i think its a good album, and it has a lot to offer, and i’ll be sure to listen to it some more, but is it memorable? …No, is it good enough to spend your well earned money? … Well … yeah, why not, the boys have skill, and you won’t get that “i wasted my money” feel, that only Fear Factory’s can deliver.

Scarve – Mirthless Perspectives

Scarve – An Emptier Void

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