It is arguable that innovation has become a key word when it comes to metal music these days. If your band doesn’t happen to be among the big, successful and worshipped acts of metal, you need to play something special to be noticed. Moreover, the music scene profits from new, groundbreaking bands and can develop further this way.
Promethee, a young band hailing from Switzerland, are doubtlessly trying to be innovative. Combining hardcore and metalcore with progressive metal is quite an interesting idea and I’ve actually been hearing quite some bands doing this recently – acts like Ghost Iris (modern prog with metalcore elements) and Oceans Ate Alaska (very technical metal/deathcore) released solid debut albums this year.
Promethee have been around since 2008 and already released two EPs and a first full-length (Nothing Happens. Nobody Comes, Nobody Goes.) and are now back with a second album called Unrest. But as with numerous bands that give combinations of different subgenres a whirl, it is a rather intricate affair.
I can tell that Unrest is a leap forward compared with Nothing Happens. Nobody Comes, Nobody Goes. The mix of styles sounds more refined and the instrumental parts sound more diversified, while the overall sound is technical as always. These guys can play and blend two styles nicely into each other, but the bottom line is that although I expected to hear something new, fresh and groundbreaking, Unrest sounds a lot like stuff I’ve heard a thousand times before. I often point out that this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Technically, the musicians do a great job when it comes to guitar solos and melodic slide-ins.
The main problem with this album, though, is the fact that it feels clunky and heavy. Many songs sound very much alike, while the better songs are at the beginning of the record. The vocals, which play a very big part of the overall sound for me, pretty much give me a great headache. If nothing else, Promethee’s music often feels lifeless – I really miss some kind of emotion here. Especially metalcore and prog require a certain feeling to stick in the listener’s mind. And if I’m honest, if I’m not able to feel something when I’m listening to an album, I won’t listen to it again.
To sum up, I do believe that Promethee are great at blending those styles together and throwing some musical gems into their songs that distract from the fact that the overall performance is not what I would call anything more than average. Thank you very much, but a mix of old As I Lay Dying, UK metalcore, some down-tuned guitars here and there and hysteric yelling aren’t what I necessarily need in my life.
Tracklist:
01. Our Common Fall
02. Unspoken
03. Dark Souls
04. Frostbite
05. Age Of Unrest
06. The Sour Taste
07. Broken Structures
08. Vacant
09. Inert And Bound
10. Dead Motion
11. Lost Body
12. Echoes Of The Universe
Playing time: 50:04
Release date: 4 September, 2015 (EU)
Label: Lifeforce Records
Webiste: www.prometheemusic.com
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