THE ABSENCE „From Your Grave”

Music: Melodic Death Metal
Country: USA
Website: http://www.theabsence.com
Duration: 42.24
Cool Songs: A Breath Beneath, Heaven Ablaze, I, Deceiver, From Your Grave

There used to be a time (a very important time in fact) back in the early 90’s when all you found coming out of Tampa Bay, Florida were Death Metal bands. Of course, many of them are still with us, but as a scene things are not what they used to be. Of the many other forms of metal that has since sprung from the Florida, and in particular Tampa, I wouldn’t have banked on Euro flavoured Melodic Death making its presence felt. The ‘Little Gothenburg’ tag is more the domain of the Boston Mass area, however Tampa Bay act ‘The Absence’ is out to prove that ‘Euro Metal’ has transcended all boundaries. Now, no one is safe!

Whereas the Boston scene is a hybrid of styles (namely Hardcore and Scando melodic metal) ‘The Absence’ is probably the first American metal band to fully embrace the ‘true’ Swedish death metal sound. It’s been done by others of course, but not American bands. Germany’s ‘Night in Gales’ pretended to be Swedish for years in the late 90’s and just recently, Italy’s ‘Disarmonia Mudi’ thought they’d try for a slick ‘Dark Tranquillity impersonation. You could accuse ‘The Absence’ of maybe missing the boat by a couple of good years, but based on the sound of their debut ‘From Your Grave’ they’re out to take advantage of any semblance of room left in a very overcrowded scene.

As a debut album ‘From Your Grave’ is mightily impressive. Much more professional and mature sounding than it should be for a band that, for all intents and purposes, only solidified their line up in 2003. On the back of a self titled EP in 2004, ‘The Absence’ signed with Metal Blade in Feb 2005 and then very quickly headed to Mana Studios with uber modern Death Metal producer Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal) and engineer Shawn Ohtani. Needless to say, ‘FYG’ sounds excellent, all instrumentation is crystal clear yet compared to their European counterparts this has that typical ‘dry’ guitar sound that represents possibly the only real discernable difference between ‘The Absence’ and their brothers over the pond.

Understandably, for all of love that ‘The Absence’ has for Euro Melodic Death Metal, they will still have trouble convincing many to take a chance with ‘FYG’. There is a saying ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’ and it is just possible that what ‘The Absence’ tries to do here is just a tad too familiar. Blending all that is notable about acts like early ‘At The Gates, In Flames with the Finnish thrash technicality of ‘Children of Bodom’, plus some very melodic Maiden-ish ‘twin lead’ work (Peter Joseph & Patrick Pintavelle), wrapped around your best ‘Tompa Lindberg’ vocal performance, there is nothing here that you have not heard before. Nothing! Not that this sounds tired, it’s tight and energetic enough, but unfortunately it just doesn’t do anything else.

Listen, ‘The Absence’ is great at what they do; they’re a bona fide solid American ‘Swedish’ melodic death metal band. If you’re a fan of any of the previously mentioned Euro staples, you’ll find this to be a pleasing, but overtly familiar listen. And therein lays the real problem. They do nothing more with the sound than what we’ve heard from a trillion others. Granted, these guys are a hell of a lot better in the song writing department than most, but in terms of filing away Swede classics in favour of this one, well it just isn’t going to happen.

note: Quote: 7

Tracklist

Intro
A Breath Beneath
Necropolis
From Your Grave
Heaven Ablaze
Summoning The Darkness
Shattered
I, Deceiver
My Ruin
Seven Demons

Line-up

Patrick Pintavalle – Guitar
Jamie Stewart – Vocals
Jeramie Kling – Drums
Peter Joseph – Guitars
Nicholas Calaci – Bass