[Today marks a special day, as it’s the day at which our new guest writer ‘Danimal or Buffalo’ drops in his first album review. He took care of the latest work of Portugal’s Echidna for us, and might I say he’s been particularly adept at describing what he hears. I’ve listened to some of the album and can say nothing else that he’s spot on! Welcome aboard DoB!]

Band: Echidna (Portugal) Album: Dawn of the Sociopath (2011) Genre: Melodic Death Metal Well let’s just start off by saying what a pleasant surprise it was to get this in my inbox! Echidna was great from the moment I pressed play till the moment the album ended. Hailing from Portugal, comes raw fast crunching chug with plenty string bends in tune perfectly and executed brilliantly. Dawn of the Sociopath is the follow-up to the band’s highly acclaimed 2008 debut album, Insidious Awakening. From what I have read, the band spent three years putting this album together and that definitely has been time well spent.

They say good things take time and this is proof. It seems as if they have poured their blood, sweat and tears into this recording and it has paid off well, with the lead guitarist really grabbing me the most.

The album has ten neck-breaking tracks, each one complimenting the others. With a nice raw, not too mastered, recording quality, this album makes you feel as if you are there at the recording studio. Most the songs on the album are around four-and-a-half minutes long, though there are also a couple of short tracks on it.

The bass and guitar go hand-in-hand with the brutal drummer and it’s all complimented with a vocalist who sounds like he has fucking razorblades in his throat, a lead guitar that sounds like he’s on a brutal acid trip and a crunching rhythm guitar that sounds really pissed off. I hear influences from all sorts of bands coming through in this album. If you’re into Lamb of God or the likes, then this is an album for you. From what I have heard from these guys so far, it sounds like it would be one epic live show.

There were some track’s that I enjoyed in particular. A great lick is Bloodlust, which has great breakdowns with a nice element of ”almost what it would be like to hear these guys live”, I imagine. With its fast and heavy intro leading into quick triplets and brutal breakdowns that leave you waiting for the kick, it’s a great track with a good, almost Viking, feel to it. The drummer really reminds me of Lamb of God in this song.

The track I enjoyed the most, however, was The Fallout. With screaming dark and evil vocals partnered with some nice quick triplets on the guitar and an intro that made me feel like I was marching off to war. A really good ”Dethklok” feel to the lead guitar as usual takes the cake, with some massive hammering riffs during the verses and hard palm mutes during the chorus accompanied by heavy tom drums on the breakdowns.

I have listened to this album from start to finish a few times now and I am yet to find a song / riff I don’t like. The whole album is well worth a listen and I would say I will be listening to it often again in the near future. Even though some of the lyrics are what you would always hear, they seem to go down well. With solos that left me wanting more and more, and vocals that are very well structured, being the record’s main strong point, this is a kick ass album and I recommend it highly.

My Grade: 9/10
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Tags: death, groove, melodeath, melodic, Portuguese

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 25th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.