Valtari - Fragments Of A Nightmare - review
Valtari - Fragments Of A Nightmare - review
Band
Valtari Album
Fragments Of A Nightmare Style
Melodic death metal Release date
February 24, 2012 Tracklist
01. Sweet Tragedy02. Black Sun Rising
03. Judas Lie
04. Mistress Of Madness
05. Always Remember
06. Traitors Smile
07. Inside My Darkness
08. The Awakening
09. Dying Light
10. The Final Call
A review by
Milena March 10, 2012
Early to mid-2000s saw the birth of dozens of bands (here dubbed "the second generation") inspired by the original Gothenburg scene, and soon a myriad of others followed. The scene is already over-saturated. What will happen when the third generation - which will take the "modern" or the melancholic melodeath* sound even further, probably into uniformity - arrives? For some, it will be the end of their interest for the genre, but I can tell you that, when it happens, Valtari are going to be one of the better bands in the bunch.
Or, more precisely, one of the better musicians in the bunch: Valtari is a one man project, and Fragments Of A Nightmare is fully performed and produced by the Aussie multi-instrumentalist Marty Warren. Some of the influences he lists are Dark Tranquillity, Insomnium, Be'lakor and Dissection (see, some second generation here!) and he's done a pretty good job describing the band's sound by doing so. What can be heard here is a relatively inoffensive blend of melodeath, not bastardized by core-y angst or over-saturated with keyboards (big cheers!), high-paced and with an occasional meloblack element thrown into the mix.
It is universally assumed that multi-instrumentalists aren't on equal levels of skill on all of their instruments, and that self-produced and self-released albums don't sound as good as the ones supported by a label - Valtari is an exception to both of those rules. Marty's harsh vocals are up to par, and his drumming solutions and guitar/keyboard skills are on the same, very satisfactory, level; the production is quite pleasing to my ears as well. As for the actual songwriting: the riffs and the passages manage to invoke some interest and offer solutions more creative than a lot of those dime-a-dozen bands in the scene.
Despite the high pace, the album lacks some releases of energy, and more variety could be brought here either by throwing more meloblack elements into the picture or by cramming more of those interesting arrangements into the fairly standard verses. But those are minor flaws in comparison to its biggest problem: to use that often repeated sentence, it is nothing we haven't heard before. Valtari arrived ten years late to the party.
So why the (high) seven mark? The fact that this album is entirely self-made and very well realized adds a lot to its value, but I have a more important point to make. If this were a fifth or sixth album by one of those "second generation" melodeath bands, it would have been rated a point higher by the community. Even the most skillful of those bands have, at best, only offered us a fairly slow progression. So if you really loved those albums, there's no point in not liking this even a little bit, unless you're into hypocrisy (not the band!) - which is not cool.
* I got tired of repeatedly typing melodeath/Gothenburg. I have a soul too.
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Posts: 1185
This album screams MEDIOCRE. I am pretty big into Melodeath and know enough to seperate the cream from the crop and this sure aint no cream. It is extremely similar to Kalmah yet slightly more boring (which is already a problem with Kalmah) I give props to the guy for doing this all himself and the album is respectable and notable, but it aint a gamechanger and only worth checking out for the most Die Hard Melodeath fans. As for the Future of Melodeath, I have faith in Whispered who made a smashing debut in 2010? and are working on a new album right now. (I wrote a review for their debut but it wont show until a staff writes a review first b/c the stupid new rules... anyway check em out!)
---- pewpew.. gotcha
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Posts: 4603 Written by AngelofDeth on 03.04.2012 at 08:50 Which is what I wrote really 
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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 Posts: 21306 |
Posts: 21306 Written by AngelofDeth on 03.04.2012 at 08:50 If their debut was released in 2010... you don't have to wait for anything. :/
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Posts: 1185 |
Posts: 1185 Written by Troy Killjoy on 03.04.2012 at 22:32 Oh shit i must of read the rules wrong then :/
---- pewpew.. gotcha
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