Just as While She Sleeps gave metalcore a much-needed kick up the arse last year, so this full-length debut from Swiss quintet Promethee looks set to deliver the benchmark for the genre in 2013.
Adding the spacious virtuosity of tech-death metallers The Faceless and rhythmic histrionics to an already crushing blueprint, the band favour twisted harmonies and atmosphere over anything resembling the melodic choruses that are so abundant among their peers.
The opening one-two of The Great Deception and Banner Of Lies meld walls of aggression and precision djent-infused breakdowns with subtle melody and expansive structures, while multi-headed colossus Thus Spoke shifts from sweetly picked lines to low-end riffs, dissonant leads and a haunting broken passage, before culminating in a fist-in-the-air chant.
The malevolent lyrics of Life/Less best encapsulate the album’s dark tone. Despite a mid-album dip this is an absorbing and fierce debut that demands repeated listens.
