FMA Reviews: De Profundis: The Emptiness Within

Originally reviewed here.

De Profundis is a melodeath band, despite the materials listing them as a black/doom metal hybrid. But do not let that word influence your decision about whether to check them out. Because that term has become diluted over the years the same way that the music has. Melodeath has come to be thought of as just recent In Flames, Soilwork, Dark Tranquillity, and the like, but it used to be something different. Something more aggressive and powerful. And that is what De Profundis is.

My personal favorite era of melodeath was the early years. Think Lunar Strain-era In Flames, Skydancer-era Dark Tranquillity, and the like. Back when melodeath bands were just more melodic death metal bands. De Profundis has that kind of sound. Yes there are elements of black metal and doom metal present, but the basis of this album is in the tremolo riff-driven style of the early wave of melodic death metal.

De Profundis uses much more progressive song structures. There are a lot of parts to the songs that flow together surprisingly well. That is often a problem with more progressive styles of metal. Sometimes the musicians focus too much on being unusual and forget to write coherent songs. That is never a problem with this release. The progressiveness only serves to make things more interesting and entertaining.

I find myself extremely impressed with the instrumentation, particularly the guitar and bass work. And when was the last time a bass was that impressive in a metal album? That is how good it is. It almost brings to mind the type of bass-playing that would be featured in funk. This is probably something that might alienate fans of black metal, but I think it sounds amazing.

Overall this is a very strong album. It sounds very much like the early bands in the melodic death metal era, which is an era that I really enjoyed.