Costa Rica is a small democratic and peaceful country located in Central America- and this is where the Melodic Death Metal sextet SIGHT OF EMPTINESS call their home base. Forming in 2005, they've been able to accomplish a great deal in their 9 years of existence: recording two self-financed albums, opening slots across their home country for some of the biggest bands in the genre like MEGADETH, AMON AMARTH, and DARK TRANQUILLITY, as well as winning the unsigned band contest for the UK Bloodstock Festival, playing on the main stage in front of thousands of metal heads.

"Instincts" is their third independent album, and quite an intriguing one due to the plethora of special guests that grace this recording. Three vocalists handle the 'clean' melodies on certain tracks, with current SOULTION .45 / ex-SCAR SYMMETRY singer Christian Älvestam appearing on 3 songs, as well as a couple of guitar breaks from axe experts like Glen Drover and Ralph Santolla - but all the star power in the world doesn't mean a hill of beans if the regular musicians and songwriting aren't top tier... and fortunate for us, this is a stellar example of harmonic laden melodic death metal.

Students of the genre, SIGHT OF EMPTINESS seek to appeal to the ardent followers through strong riff intuition, building up tension and harmony while the vocals can often match stroke for stroke the propulsive shifts in aggression and atmosphere. A lot of the slower dual guitar melodies reach back into the early 1990's DEATH catalog, check out "Genetics" or the jackhammer oriented "Essence" for the band's layered stance and subsequent impact. Overall these 12 tracks purvey a love for all things Swedish in terms of the groove meets melodic Metal passages, occasionally progressive when called for to give the listener an edge of the seat experience (reference points would be the tapping harmonics on "Instincts" or the swirling keyboards that counter the Jazzy guitar portions of "Passion").

The EQ compression doesn't benefit the bottom end much, so bass and cymbals get squashed over the wall of guitars and keyboards - but overall those who miss the early years of SOILWORK, all things SCAR SYMMETRY and even a little bit of the melancholy OMNIUM GATHERUM ("Sanctuary" has a lot of characteristics of this mighty group) will delight in SIGHT OF EMPTINESS. Proof that the genre still has a long shelf life, especially if bands from other horizons can deliver professional product on par with the giants.