Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Dååth
Label: Century Media
Release: 2010
Runtime: 45:13
Rating: 5/5
Let’s just go with the words of former keyboardist Mike Kameron: “On a mental level, Daath acts as a door between instinct and intellect, and the very conflict between these two aspects of thought causes most of the misery in the world.” The intelligent synthesis of the ancient Hebrew mystical principle of the Kabbalah ties in with the point of creation. Dååth unites the ten sefirot in the Tree of Life and, as a unifying element, binds everything into oneness, into wholeness, radiating the endless light of the divine; but to behold it, we humans have to become altruistic, give ourselves to the world and follow our mission. Then this wholeness reveals itself – in the form of higher knowledge and knowing, which uncovers the hidden and the incomprehensible; after that comes a state of enlightenment, understanding and wisdom. On a lower level, dååth unites us as intellectual and emotional beings alike. But the path to the revelation of Paradise can, according to Kabbalistic belief, easily drag us into the Abyss. Man falls, mankind loses the protection of Paradise and, with a bite of the apple of knowledge, plunges into a state of despair, misery and suffering. And that last one is what Dååth’s fourth hellish gospel is all about. Musically, the record is a bombastic combination of rhythmically polished guitar attacks from guitarists Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler, who take you on melodic astral excursions into the unknown, into spheres of total dreaminess, followed by steely sobering up, madness and complete rage. The baroque contours of the rich sound are rounded out by the rhythmic exorcism of drummer Kevin Talley, the bass thunder of Jeremy Creamer and the raspy vocals of Sean Zatorsky. The conglomerate is mighty, ecstatic and technically flawless. The strongest elements of the record are hard to pin down, since the parabola of continuous peaks is there right from the opening bars of the escalating gothic atmosphere of opener Genocidal Maniac, which fuses a Death-style approach to melody and an uncompromising post-HC grindcore aesthetic with almost esoteric breaks.
Indestructable Overdose, after a cabaret-circus intro, packs some of the best rhythmic playfulness on the record, and the overture morphs into one of its strongest tracks – the ecstatic Double Tap Suicide, which at its core is a very complex death metal composition, with loads of guitar tempo changes and accelerations to supersonic speed. The rhythm is simple and very stripped-down, while the nu-metal-tinged The Decider sets renewed, genetically enhanced genocidal standards for this abused genre. Exit Plan is a masterpiece packed with breaks that Slipknot wouldn’t say no to, and after the electrified mood of a total rupture comes a tandem duo of brutal beauty: the tracks Oxygen Burn and the wrecking-ball Accelerant. The flames of hell are well and truly stoked, and before you know it half the record is behind you. You’re swept away by the incredible closing phase of the jazz-laced final act of the death metal brilliance that is Accelerant. The eerily technical polish of the bravura so far is topped off by the schizophrenic factor of the almost ambient and ultimately atmospheric Arch {Enemy} Misanthrope, and after the near-mirror-image tracks Manufactured Insomnia and A Cold Devotion (the first kicks off with a slow, chopped-off intro that speeds up into a thrashy finish, while the latter is merely the intro to the track A Cold Devotion, which gets a calming moment towards its fade-out) you get déjà vu and behold a symbiont of Chimaira and an untamed jazz beast on a thrash trip. The merging of fractals carries on with N.A.T.G.O.D. and ends in the theater of illusions and gothic clusters of sound that is Terminal Now. The end is only a new beginning, for listening all over again and surrendering to the cycles of dying and rebirth, and the mission of total bliss is more than accomplished.
The perfect cocktail of rhythm, melody, harmony and rainbow colors is complete, and after listening, all that echoes in your brain are words of brilliant astonishment, of musical transcendence and a clear awareness that after a constellation of four records and nearly ten years of proving themselves, Dååth deserve full recognition, standing ovations and a passage, carved in golden fleece, into the realm of the metal gods. May their pool of ideas stay this rich and full forever and ever – amen!
Line-up
Sean Zatorsky – vocals
Eyal Levi – guitar
Jeremy Creamer – bass
Emil Werstler – guitar
Kevin Talley – drums
Guest musicians:
Eric Guenther – keyboards, piano
Production
Mark Lewis, Eyal Levi & Dååth
Tracklist
1. Genocidal Maniac
2. Destruction/Restoration
3. Indestructible Overdose
4. Double Tap Suicide
5. The Decider
6. Exit Plan
7. Oxygen Burn
8. Accelerant
9. Arch [Enemy] Misanthrope
10. Manufactured Insomnia
11. A Cold Devotion
12. N.A.T.G.O.D.
13. Terminal Now
