Diablerie
The Catalyst Vol.1: Control
(Primitive Reaction)
Well, 2017 looks to be a good year when I’m already giving such high marks in January, before the big releases have even hit the shelves. Previously I gave Firewind’s latest a relatively high score, and now I’m giving the long-awaited sophomore effort from Finnish industrial extreme metallers Diablerie a relatively high score as well. For those of you who are curious to the sound, it’s like crossing a death or black metal act with strong industrial nodes and playful electronic keys. A style that sometimes heads extremely close to Strapping Young Lad. You can practically taste the STL influence in “Rabid (Dogs of Church and State)” especially when the background synths seem to rise to the same heights, but don’t sound quite as produced as Devy’s keyboard compositions. Even the clean vocals seem to resemble that Devin Townsend approach, which is where you can see the band obtained a lot of their influence. But if you’re going to mix STL at their heaviest with Devin Townsend at his most artful and then throw in some extreme industrial bits into boot, then it’s a winner in my book. Usually.
But what’s this? Perhaps the only real Devin Townsend influence appears on that particular song and as we keep listening, I find that to be the case. Opener “Selves” makes me think a little of Fear Factory with a more symphonic edge and “Wear My Crown” makes me think of Blood Stain Child and similar acts that mix death metal and Euro-pop/Rave together. After that, “Odium Generis Humani” brings on a Sepultura/Soulfly influence that reminds me quite a bit of Max Cavalera on the vocal end, before the dreamy keys come into place and I’m reminded a little of something like Graveworm. From what I’m hearing of this release, it sounds like these guys simply took every influence that they loved and made a separate song out of it. There’s no real wrong way to make an album as long as you do it right in my book, and I won’t consider this style of record making to be inferior in any manner. After all, the point of playing music is to make art and have a good time while doing it. It certainly sounds like that happened here. But let’s skip all of the way down for a second, as a rather unexpected influence appears on the very last track of the album and that’s an influence that made me treasure this record much more than I ever thought I would.
It’s not quite the final track, as that’s an interesting instrumental that I’m going to let you discover for yourself; but the piece I’m focusing on here is a little track called “Osiris.” Now oddly enough, most songs with that particular title I’ve enjoyed heavily. Dark Fortress’s “Osiris” is a song that I’d like played at my funeral actually, so I naturally expected this “Osiris” to hit just as hard, and it does. What we have here is a heftier and more groove oriented piece that comes packed with middle-eastern synth atmospheres, an interesting robotic vocal filter and more overall depth than the rest of the album. This also could be the reason why the track stretches out to more than seven minutes in length. It’s quite possible that such a piece is Samael, Septic Flesh and Fear Factory influenced as well, which may be one of the reasons why I was drawn to it. Though once again, this shows that Diablerie have made an album with several styles interpreted in their own way.
I’m leaving so much out here, but for good reason. Control is most certainly groove-oriented, but the listener will experience several layers of melody in lieu of the synths and guitar, many of which are simply remarkable. I’ve always loved strong melodies in any format, and these guys manage to balance their carnage with rhapsody in a package that is certainly memorable. I believe that I even caught some Tiamat or possible Paradise Lost nodes in the solo section for “Osiris” which almost feels like a sort of nod to those great acts. Listeners won’t exactly catch those things unless they’ve been listening to these classic records as long as I have; which is why I almost consider this record as a sort of tribute album more than it is an original work. That is not an issue though, as it clearly shows that Control is a product of heavy experimentation from a band looking to find it’s own sound and style. In that sense, it does sort of feel like a bit of an extended demonstration, but in all the right ways. The easiest way to explain this one would be to imagine if an impeccably talented band was asked to perform several established styles in their own way and then record it onto a disc. That’s more or less what the end product of Control is. That being said, Diablerie prove that they’re a band with the potential to stand the test of time. The only question is, will they actually be able to do just that? Time will tell.
