Muffin Rising

I freaking love melodic death metal. Between the incredible guitars, the crushing drums, the haunting synth, and the combination of clean vocals and growls, melodeath has it all. Before The Dawn have realized this, and decided to focus all of their talents to produce the greatest melodic death ever to grace our ears.

BTD is a four piece out of Finland (of course they are - all great melodeath bands come from Scandinavia), founded and fronted by the great Tuomas Saukkonen (lead guitar, keys, and growls) in 1999. Deathstar Rising is the sixth studio album from these melodeath giants, and it's amazing. Let me tell you why.

Classical guitars start things off in the instrumental intro track "The First Snow". Tuomas and Juho Raiha harmonize the guitars perfectly. Suddenly, the acoustics are gone and electrics have taken over. This is when I realized that the intro track was over and had transitioned perfectly into "Winter Within". Tuomas' growls are absolutely brutal - deep, guttural, and full of emotion - and drummer Atte Palokangas never misses a beat (See what I did there? Drummer "never missses a beat"?). Bassist Lars Eikind gets to show off his singing voice, and you realize that this might be the single best melodic death metal band ever to walk the realm of mortals. "Deathstar" opens with some top notch guitar work, as expected before the verse kicks in with an earth-shaking "BEHOLD!". Lars' singing layers nicely under Tuomas' growls for the choruses for a suitably heavy and melodic mix. With a switch to a 3/4 timing for "Remembrance", Before The Dawn present a sound reminiscent of melodeath gods Insomnium. "Unbroken" gives a faster edge to their standard sound, and the change of pace is just what the doctor ordered.

Track six, "Judgments", slows things back down to a slightly less blistering speed and lets Lars take lead on the vocals, giving it a more melodic focus than the previous songs. "The Wake" switches things back to the Insomnium-esque sound, with a clean electric lead guitar part layering over a heavy rhythm part. Opting for another slower song, "Sanctuary" opens with a slow clean guitar piece that steadily builds until the full force of the metal comes back to kick you in the teeth. "Butterfly Effect" speeds things up again, letting Tuomas take control of the song with his commanding vocal style. The Finnish quartet closes out this masterpiece with a folk-metal influenced track entitled "Wraith". With what might be some of the most technical work on the whole album, they certainly opted for the "going out with a bang" option.

Before The Dawn have set the bar high for other melodic death metal bands this year, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The complete package, Deathstar Rising succeeds in melding all of the elements that make melodeath great into a finely tuned, perfectly executed full-length record.