01. Death March
02. Execution
03. While You Bleed
04. Harvest of Death
Total: 18:28
Rating:
Links:
- Official WebsitePoint-Blank is melodic death metal band with audible thrash metal influences coming from Raahe, northern Finland. After releasing a first demo entitled Gatling Gun Manifest in 2007, they have now released their second, Execution.
The first track on this four-track demo is entitled "Death March". It kicks off with a "war-themed" sample, and before long we find ourselves drowning in the world of pacy, loud, and aggressive death metal. In the midst of the chaos, we can find the lead guitar attempting to cry out twice as loud, a nice detail. This strong opening march opens expectations for what's to follow next. Will our minds be executed or not?
The title track is probably the most generic and uninventive piece on the demo, so it's curious that this is the one giving the name to the release. Our scheduled execution appears to be delayed. Once again, it's quite an aggressive song, featuring a couple of breakdowns that offer some space for the guitars to evolve into a more melodic riffing just before they go back to the main repetitive, furious shredding."While You Bleed", the third track, is the most solid track on the demo. Galloping guitars set the tone throughout the song and the drums follow in a similar fashion, while the vocals stay faithful to a traditional death metal style. It's the most diverse and interesting song structure-wise, no doubts about that.
Lastly, "Harvest of Death" offers an over-a-minute instrumental intro and falls into the solid, "same old" pattern. But the demo closes in a somewhat epic fashion, starting with the bridge, which features a short guitar solo, and ending with the restless, brutal riffing that carries on until the last fading seconds.Summing up, following the traditions of contemporary melodic death metal, it should not disappoint the fans of the genre, or headbanging thrash metalheads either, for that matter. But we've seen all of this before many times already; it's solid but not more than that, clearly running the risk of wearing out much too soon for the listener.
The bass is not very audible, and the mixing could have been accomplished better. The band should also work on their music writing and find their honest sound, even if that means going through a lengthy process of experimentalism. Otherwise it won't be getting much different from this.
Radium
Released: 2009, self-released
