Defecto – Duality (Black Lodge Records)
Friday, 6th November 2020
Making a strong impression a few years back with their last release Nemesis, Danish heavy metal act Defecto return with Duality – striding confidently into a multi-layered approach that can be melodic and catchy one minute, then progressive and quite heavy the next. Once you’ve established the parameters and abilities within a band, the hope is to continually expand parameters and stretch to achieve even more as far as quality songwriting – and that appears to be the case after a few spins of these eleven tracks. You can expect a mixture of straightforward material and progressive offerings that include more dynamic nuances and genre juggling, adding symphonic, atmospheric, and cinematic textures while encouraging the musicians to push and pull segments based on the interplay and individual needs of a specific arrangement.
One aspect that immediately caught this scribe’s attention is the lack of space at times in between tracks – forcing the listener to submerge themselves quickly into the next musical idea. The first three songs go from the calm acoustic / piano beginning to a bluesy/modern hard rock-oriented “Rings of Saturn” with its forceful, Shinedown-like vocal melodies and church-like a cappella ending to the progressive, Symphony X-like charge of “The Uninvited” featuring some blitzkrieg keyboard hooks against crunchy, driving guitars, before the straightforward, shorter “Rise” hits all the feels anthem-wise, including the commanding background vocal support and Nicklas Sonne’s hearty main singing featuring standout grit and smoothness line to line. Low-tuned guitars against razor-sharp bass/drum ferocity puts “All for You” into another modern barnburner, the vocals very AOR-ish while the circular guitar twists up the progressive factor a pinch. Symphonic/orchestration elements add some emotional tension to specific tracks, working very well for “Bed of Nails”, which also includes some darker growls in spots – while the record closes on a quieter ballad for “Don’t Say Goodbye” that pushes the tear factor as Nicklas challenges himself in those upper reaches while the guitar break has equal emotive capacity.
Defecto overall would be considered more of a modern hard rock meets semi-progressive metal outfit – they have appreciation for a wide array of influences and the ability to siphon those elements into catchy three to five-minute songs. Duality should retain great appeal for multiple music aficionados, and hopefully help the band garner a stronger foothold through the worldwide community as these gentlemen are talented, and solid in all aspects of their sound.
