Debut release from Swiss metal band
Promethee, it seems, can't make up their collective mind as to whether they want to punch you in the face, puke on your shoes and then return to their graveyard hang-out or sit you down and carefully explain the rudiments of sweep picking such are their repeated swings from prog tinged technical metal to death-core. Many bands combine different genres into a coherent, or at least distinctive and personal sound, but Promethee don't really manage- to borrow a New Labour-ism here– to triangulate these two approaches. If they were really a gnarly death obsessed group there would be some trace of malice, of meanness or brutal intent but there isn't. They simply sound too well adjusted; too satisfied with musical proficiency.
Let's not muddy the water too much though. Promethee do shout, shred and riff over these five tracks as well if not better than many of the new bands trying to make it in metal these days. There are examples of satisfying break downs rather than the pointless populism of other deathcore acts and the vocals remain clear and precise throughout (see 'Sink or Swim' for evidence of this) which makes for a change. Elsewhere, 'Ashes' marries a mid-paced chug with added melody combining to make a song of well placed peaks and troughs. They seem to click for closer 'Over the Horizon' where a number of jagged riffs mingle with proggy guitar harmonics and shifting drum patterns as Joshua Orsi screams and gurgles his way through their "battle cry."
But, in the overwhelming tide of new metal releases every month it's hard to mark Promethee out as anything other than competent, polished even. They do have ideas of their own it has to be said and there's maybe more to come from them. However at this point in time this EP is kind of the musical equivalent of Michael Bay's hard-on for models and the military in that it all sounds good and is technically adept but for whatever reason simply doesn't set the blood racing.