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Dissolution - Dirt Skies

Dissolution - Dirt Skies

Four long years have passed since Winnipeg-based death metal act Dissolution’s last release, Dying. Dead. Undead. In that time, they have refined and sharpened their sound while simultaneously further honing their already very solid DIY production skills.

The resulting album is a 50 minute relentless onslaught of perfectly balanced brutality and musicality.  This, if you ask me, is classic death circa 2011.  If I had to slap a genre tag on it (since people are wont to require such things, for some reason), I’d have to call it melodic death metal, but very much in the vein of Heartwork-era Carcass, and not the shadow of its former self this style has become.  But while Dissolution may seemingly wear these influences on their collective sleeve, they rigorously execute their craft with power and finesse in a context that is undeniably modern and creates for a powerful atmosphere of nostalgic but relevant headbanging.

The dual-guitar assault is the ever-present centerpiece of the album, a ceaseless cavalcade of blistering riffs in which excellent facemelting solos abound.  This stringed attack is highlighted with precision by contrasting low and high harsh vocal styles.  The bass is largely transparent in that it is primarily doubling and underpinning one or other of the guitar parts, but it is actually audible, which is more than one can say for a large quantity of extreme metal albums, both classic and current.  If I have one nitpick for the entirety of the album, it’s that the drum arrangements are somewhat unimaginative, and there are a few sections where he uses a particular type of blastbeat that doesn’t rhythmically mesh perfectly with the rest of the instrumentation, resulting in fleeting passages of perceived awkwardness or sloppiness.  His performance and the band overall are otherwise very tight, though, and this record is such an unmitigated blitzkrieg of sickness that I’m loath to dock it any points on the scarce few flaws my fastidious ears might find.

Dirt Skies is available now on Dissolution’s bandcamp and is well worth the paltry asking price.  Premium quality independent metal to break your neck to.  What more could you want?

Dissolution on bandcamp

Dissolution on facebook

Tags: 2011, Canada, carcass, death, death metal, dirt skies, dissolution, facemelting, heartwork, heavy, manitoba, melodic death metal, metal, riffs, winnipeg

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