Breathing The Ashes

Old Place

From a country with solid metal traditions lies a newborn record by the Brazilian fresh […]
By Vladimir "Abir" Leonov
February 3, 2015
Old Place - Breathing The Ashes album cover

From a country with solid metal traditions lies a newborn record by the Brazilian fresh band, OLD PLACE, whom I think the somewhat beginner English skills didn't prevent from bringing to life a great release for what is a 19-minute EP of a still relatively brand new band.

As well as the inkling hints of grind riffs spattered here and there, as heard on "Frozen", a devil-may-care alternation between low, mid and high vocal pitches, often blended simultaneously, supported by a breath-taking bass sound in a wise precaution that as soon as the riff becomes repetitive, they immediately shift to something else, mainly the authentic core-free death headbang passage of glorious warm up for the next "Awakened", with what I assume a drum intro counter time soon melting into fierce chromatic riffs with a too-high-to-be-detectable- tempo pulse, all in which the forth bars are ornamented with swift arpeggios and glued to the other tracks by such a raw metallurgic sound from the bass strings, followed up by a daring old school 90's true death metal solo. Note is that the tremolo isn't the main focus but the double pedals are, bashing away murderously thus enkindling the charm of the entire EP.

As for "My Last World", the distorted growls fade into captivating torrid screams, nevertheless not occupying the front position leaving this privilege to the ruthless thrashy snares drumming drums for which all the rest is rhythming in quasi-veneration. Still amazingly, the whole thing flows in such a harmony. The downside has been the repetitive scales, an ubiquitous common symptom encountered even in bands with the highest profiles.

The hyperkinetic "Blood On Hands" can actually be conceived as opening theme for an extreme sport show for example, yet leading to calmer breakdowns in which the bass shows off its own way way with a rhythm arpeggio in the second part of the chorus, then daringly screeching just along with the growls transforming into screams. With its tongue-in-cheek solo, "Blood On Hands" was a bit mundane aiming mostly at a pure headbang adrenaline rush, in a similar inclination of the progressive-oriented title track "Breathing The Ashes" with another headbang passage, lengthy and instrumental. A particular delight was the the drum rolls finishing into a fast tempo blast ending with a massive double pedal set, a decent EP closure.

A honorable aggregate of brand new metal acts keep amazing the dedicated talent miners undeterred by the fact that the metal scene has relatively stagnated when it comes to a long-awaited genre next messianic breakthrough that hasn't occurred since the late eighties, leaving room to the fusion of what's been already materialized and circulated and raising to the spotlight the problematic quantity versus quality. And for those who will argue about the latter, I would say that the genuinely productive efforts from the kind of OLD PLACE's "Breathing The Ashes" are the very thing that keeps metal alive. But in this context, I mean the trademark. What will make them standoff? What can guarantee the survival of the metal genre long-term speaking? I wish and especially I have high expectations that the answer will be in OLD PLACE's next crafting, for it does have the potential to evolve and blow our minds away, why not?<

7 / 10

Good

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"Breathing The Ashes" Track-listing:

1. Frozen
2. Awakened
3. My Last World
4. Blood On Hands
5. Breathing The Ashes

Old Place Lineup:

Maikon Souza - Vocals
Rafa Oliveira - Guitar
Maciel de Paiva - Guitar
Renato Bruno - Bass, Drums

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