Band:	Memories Of A Dead Man
Album:	V.I.T.R.I.O.L.
Style:	Metalcore
Release date:	April 20, 2012
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Tomorrow, At Dawn...
02. On The Heights Of Despair
03. Under The Cross
04. Meshi'ha
05. Good Mourning Child
06. Insomniac Animal
07. An Ode To Myself
08. Trismegistus King
09. Leave Scars
10. Diving Bell And Butterfly
11. INRI

Memories Of A Dead Man, yet another great French band. Not a whole ton to say here, other than this hardcore album is just far too classy for your tastes.

Not to sound like a suck here, but the French have managed to do great things with music that was already awesome to begin with. Hardcore? Rowdy fun when it's not some preachy chest-slapping bullshit. French hardcore? Well, take modern hardcore, blend it with some post- elements, and a dash or two of some progressive bits. The sheer massive depth of this mix really brings in mind The Ocean (yes, both the band and that big blue wet thing), which is always a welcome factor. The groove combined with that heavy ambiguity that sounds slightly like hardcore but doesn't feel like hardcore will make you think Gojira, while the appropriately strained vocals bring in mind the vocals of High On Fire's Matt Pike during the Snakes For The Divine recordings.

Things do start to drag, though. Well, right from the start things are dragging, but at the beginning it gives it that extra dose of heaviness, where by the end it just feels monotonous. From start to finish, V.I.T.R.I.O.L. carries the exact same plodding, weight-of-the-world feeling with each song, which is a shame because Memories Of A Dead Man is a band that seems to exhibit intricate attention to detail and intelligent song writing abilities, surely they could have expanded things a little beyond what they did here.

Ignoring the samey-ness V.I.T.R.I.O.L. displays by the end, each individual song is fantastic. Intense, engaging songs that satisfy on a number of levels, Memories Of A Dead Man is definitely a band worth checking out.