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Review: A Lower Deep - Trinity
A Lower Deep
www.alowerdeep.com
Trinity

Label: Raven Flight Records
Year released: 2005
Duration: 51:42
Tracks: 10
Genre: Heavy/Progressive

Rating:
3.25/5


Review online: September 23, 2005
Reviewed by: Sargon the Terrible
Readers' Rating
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Rated 2.2/5 (44%) (5 Votes)
Review

I honestly have no idea why this band sent me their new CD, considering how little I liked their last one, "Parable Of The Thorn". I can't say A Lower Deep have completely turned around, but they have improved a lot, turning into a band I am marginally interested in.

This time around ALD seem to have decided what they want to be, and rather than noodle around in some kind of musical limbo, they have actually picked a style. They claim to be Power/Thrash, but really they are the same kind of Nevermoreish Heavy Prog metal that seems to be going around these days. That's OK, any direction is better than the shapeless mess of their last CD, trust me.

Well, for "Trinity" A Lower Deep have got themselves a really good guitar sound, and they wrote some pretty good riffs to go with it. The songs still tend to plod along at the same kind of midpace, and they go on too long, but at least the riffage is interesting. Some songs, like "Gods And Monsters" and "Lost In Eden" even break away from the stilted mode of this band's preferred songwriting and actually kick some ass. But that brings me to this band's other problem: vocals.

I know, I know. Vocals are the Achilles Hell of demo-level bands. But seriously, the music on here is good enough for the lack of decent vocals to piss me off. If this was a Bass player or a Guitarist filling in I might be more forgiving, but Billy Mullican is expressly in the band as a vocalist, and at best he's on the low end of mediocre. He has no range, no power, no charisma, and his vocal lines suck. He does nothing but get in the way of the music and drag it down, and his passionless maundering pretty much ruins the album.

So A Lower Deep have taken a big step in a good direction, but they need to knuckle down and get rid of Mullican. I hate to be that blunt, but by their next album, if they keep improving like this, ALD might just get really good, and if they don't have a better singer, that will just be wasted effort.

More about A Lower Deep...
Review: Parable Of The Thorn (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
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