Monday, August 27, 2012

Review of "Facticity" by Over Your Threshold

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1. Cortical Blindness
2. Contextual Fluctuating
3. Obscure Mind Stasis
4. Self Exhibition
5. Desolation Row
6. Antic
7. Abdicated
8. Body Part Illusion
9. Facticity

“Arising from Munich (Germany) OVER YOUR THRESHOLD was established by Lukas Spielberger and Leonhard P. in 2006. In 2007, drummer Julian Matejka joined the two guitarists and in 2009, the musicians added talented bassist Christian Siegmund to the line up. OVER YOUR THRESHOLD began playing live in 2007. After numerous gigs with renowned death metal bands like Obscura, Deadborn and Hokum, the band made a name for itself in the local metal-scene. OVER YOUR THRESHOLD is known for tight playing and an expressive performance at live-shows. The first record, PROGRESS IN DISBELIEF (EP), was self-released in 2008. Over the years the band's concept of death metal gained ground and its actual sound is enriched with a great diversity of musical elements. Influenced by different death metal bands (reaching from the 80's up to now) OVER YOUR THRESHOLD's music combines progressive death metal with a bit of thrash and some fusion components. In 2011, OVER YOUR THRESHOLD entered the Woodshed Studio (Landshut, Germany) to record their first full-length album, entitled FACTICITY. The sound of FACTICITY is not only more blasting but also more technical, interspersed with energetic death metal riffing as well as melodic acoustic guitars. It's enriched by brute-force blast beats, thrash metal, jazzy harmonics and the distinct tones of smooth, fretless bass. Furthermore, the band recruited guest musicians Steffen Kummerer (Obscura, Thulcandra) and Jonas 'JoeC' Fischer (Hokum, Ex-Obscura) to jazz up their debut album. FACTICITY was mixed and mastered by V. Santura (Triptykon, Dark Fortress). In the beginning of 2012, the long time member Leonhard P. left the band. He was replaced by Kilian Lau as new guitarist and Ludwig Walter as the new vocalist. In the same year, after completing the new line-up, OVER YOUR THRESHOLD signed to Metal Blade Records to release FACTICITY.”

The drumming is on point on “Cortical Blindness” with blast beats galore. The guitars are very heavy and technical and the sweep pickings were well done. “Contextual Fluctuating” has a technically sound riff at the beginning, leading into brutality, There is a technical bit at the end leading into a solo which blended well, after that there was a bit that felt a little black metal-esque which was interesting. I really like the open riff and sweep along with the drums in “Obscure Mind Stasis.” The acoustic bit with lead over the top that turns into a progressive style thing like Opeth, was really awesome to hear. It goes straight back into a blast beat and then into a heavy metal bit but goes back and forth between death and progressive. This song is definitely one of my favourites.

The first part of “Self Exhibition” is awesome with the technicality. The drumming break before the guitars come in again was pretty cool. I really dug how much the bass stood out on this track. The solo in this was very old school heavy metal feeling, along with another more death metal style solo after. “Desolation Row” starts off on a riff that had a little bit of a black metal feel. The riff after is very technical without becoming hard to follow, which is good. There was technical bit with solo after meshed well and the solo is very amazing and includes sweeps which is always a good showcase of talent. The opening riff along with the drums on “Antic” was nice. Blast beats with a bit of technicality follows and sounds brutal. The next bit is very blackened death sounding and I also enjoyed the sweep half way through along with the technicality.

“Abdicated” is mostly just your normal death metal at the beginning. The bass riff before the technicality was nice and then moves right into progressive style acoustic and lead diddles, which then leads right back into brutality. The duelling solos are very awesome on this track. The next track, “Body Part Illusion,” is mostly straight up death metal throughout. It does have its technical moments and the solo is epic as well. The last track “Facticity,” is all about the technicality. The bass stands out a lot and its sounds amazing. There was solo half way through and it sounds very mellow with the groove rhythm behind it. An acoustic and lead progressive bit after that plays out the album.

Over Your Threshold have really surprised me with this album. I was just expecting your average death metal. I was wrong as it is far from average. They brought much to the table with its brutality, technicality and also brings progressive style playing in to throw you off balance. If you like death metal and progressive metal, I suggest picking this up.

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