TREYHARSH

TREYHARSH - “Eternal Cycles”

By Dark Starr

The metal on this album is brutal, and the vocals are extreme. It has some strong music on the set. The problem is, it's all too similar. It could really stand a mellower tune or two to break things up a little. After a while, it just starts to feel like endless pounding with little to no variance. Still, a lot of people just listen to a song or two at a time these days rather than full albums.

A spoken thing starts the album and the opening song "The King's Name." It sounds like it comes from a movie. From there the band drive out into some seriously fierce metal. The vocals take it into the extreme zone as the song continues driving forward. Another movie-type clip starts "Hidden Strength." They launch out into more fierce extreme metal from there. That section is pounding, ferocious and angry. The instrumental break on the song is a cool break from the complete intensity.

Driving, screaming and so heavy, "The Fur, The Reign, The Fall" isn't a big change from the two songs that preceded it. I love the riff that opens "Lust." While in some ways the music on the song isn't greatly changed, the cut somehow stands taller than the ones that came before. Everything just seems to gel better on this number. The driving extreme metal on "The Inside, Pt. 1" is not a big change, either, but I am enamored with the bass sound on the track, and some of the guitar riffs are really stellar. It is another that just seems to work better than others. The dropped back sections are so classy.

Another piece that sounds like it might be from a film starts "There's Snow in Hell." The stomper screams out from there. While "Agoraphobic" is a powerhouse, the formula is starting to wear a little thin by this point. That said, the dropped back section does bring a bit of a respite from the stagnation. Also, when it's this fierce, how stagnant can it be?

The introduction on "Lonewolf" brings some variety. Starting with a mellow section, it works to a thrashy riff from there. While it largely turns toward the same stuff we've heard on every song so far once it gets to the song proper, there is almost a KING CRIMSON angle to some of the guitar parts, making the tune stand out a bit.

"Constantly Oppressed" doesn't manage to stand out as well as the last track did, feeling too much like the bulk of the music here. The monolithic nature is starting to wear thin at this point. That said, the instrumental break has some intriguing little twists and turns. Angry and unrelenting, "The Inside, Pt. 2" really suffers from the lack of variety. Taken by itself it is at least as strong as everything else here. The problem is, by this point it sounds like one long song.

Now, the closer, "Eternal Cycles" does get a little variety, largely in the form of some spoken vocals at points. While it's not enough to really let the song stand as tall as it could, it is welcome variety. Otherwise it is the same kind of fierce, screaming extreme metal as everything else here.

TREYHARSH