The Great Departure

This band bills as "Melodic Death/Thrash", but I have to say I don't hear any Thrash in here. This is very much a modern Melodic Death Metal album, with some nice riffs, a decent guitar sound, and rather technical songwriting topped off with an almost metalcore vocal approach. This band is obviously very into classic At the Gates and bands like Soilwork (before they went to complete shit). This is heavy, competently played, and well-recorded. The problems are that the songwriting is too disjointed to really gel, and the album just sounds like a bunch of separate parts that don't form a whole. The vocals range from generic to bad, and the whole sound is just kind of dated, sounding like something from ten years ago. The Desolate are doing what they do as well as anyone, but that doesn't mean they should be doing it.