I just knew that this was going to be a difficult album for me to review when I looked at the album publicity and saw the three words that were never meant to go together, melodic death metal! I’m quite a simple person and to me, there is quite a gulf between melodic metal and death metal and a combination, again in my opinion, very rarely works. This is the third album by this loud and heavy Brazilian band from Curitiba which formed in 2006 and despite what I have already said their talent is undoubted and exceptional. They have a huge list of former musicians with their current set up being Mizuho Lin (female vocals), Sergio Mazul (male vocals), Juliano Ribeiro (guitar), Johann Piper (bass), J Augusto (keyboards) and Welyntom Sikora (drums).
They tread between death, doom and progressive metal and their sound is exciting, vibrant, intense, dark, extreme and is best appreciated when played very loudly. Mizuho Lin is sensational and will soon be talked about in the same reverential tones when used to describe the likes of Sharon den Adel, Charlotte Wessels, Anneke van Giersbergen, Tarja Turunen and Floor Jansen such is the power and purity of her delivery. Sergio Mazul is the male vocalist and both singers work tremendously well together with Mazul mainly supplying the growled vocals I dislike so much but quite often he delivers sweet and clear and, to me, the band is immediately lifted higher then. The music is stunning with Ribeiro being a phenomenal player with his hard hitting riffs and killer breaks, melodic moments are courtesy of the neat keyboards of Augusto with Sikora and Piper taking no prisoners in the engine room and we should watch out for Sikora as he is a rare talent. Music is very much opinion driven and I thought this album heavy and fabulous but I just cannot handle the growled vocals whereas others will relish them and think I am an idiot and that’s fine, where would we be if we all liked the same thing?
It’s obviously that Semblant is a hugely talented band and the musicians have the skills to go a long way and I wish them all the best as they will surely wow fans and any band following them in the live environment will have to be on the top of their game. As for the death metal vocals, I leave that to you to decide but, please, listen to them, as you may just think that they are the next big thing!
