Singularity – Singularity (Self Released)
Tuesday, 9th December 2014
Here at the tail-end of 2014, combining death metal with black metal and synths isn’t exactly groundbreaking. At the truly symphonic end, you have bands such as Fleshgod Apocalypse and Septicflesh who basically require an orchestra, and then at the other end, you have bands that subtly weave in a few orchestrations here and there for variety. Consider Singularity somewhere in the middle.
Singularity takes a modern death metal approach that holds hands with black metal quite frequently to get their point across. There’s equal influences from bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth as there are death metal (you pick the stereotypical band here). The tying of death and black here actually does recall the defunct (?) band Enfold Darkness with their dynamics of intricate death metal with scathing black metal components. Lengthier tracks like “Desert Planet” work well due to a combination of keeping the scenery diverse. There’s more than just perpetual blasting here (though it does show its head); frequent but pleasant tempo-shifts and vocal switch-offs between guttural roars and blackened snarls do keep things fresh (they even try their hand at a few cleans in the latter end of the disc). The synths do carry some heft across the album, but never take away from the legitimately metal backdrop, offering to enhance rather than overwhelm the final product.
For a debut, Singularity is quite solid. While some of the influences are a bit obvious (such is the case with a number of debuts), as the band begins to further develop their sound it seems that they will be able to take off quite well from this starting point. Always a treat to find emerging US bands that don’t sound quite so “American.”
