Band:	Barren Earth
Album:	The Devil's Resolve
Style:	Melodic death metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	March 2012

01. Passing Of The Crimson Shadows
02. The Rains Begin
03. Vintage Warlords
04. As It Is Written
05. The Dead Exiles
06. Oriental Pyre
07. White Fields
08. Where All Stories End
09. Martyrs Of Devotion [special edition bonus]
10. World In Haze [special edition bonus]

The Devil's Resolve marks the sophomore release of Barren Earth, whose prior offering, Curse Of The Red River won your vote as the best debut in the 2010 MSA's. For whatever reason they are tagged here and elsewhere as a progressive death metal band, although I am not terribly sure why. The vocalist, at times, roars like Mikael from Opeth, so I guess that must be it.

Opeth is probably a good point of comparison for those of you who missed the boat on these guys in 2010. (You were probably drinking beers on the dock next to me at the time? seeing as it left without me as well.) And by Opeth, I mean they play that style of progressive metal with enough aggression and growls that cause people to affix it with the death tag as it is far more frightening than, say, Star One. It ain't gonna inspire anyone to crushfuckkill. I just wanted to clarify that before anyone else felt slightly duped.

The Devil's Resolve sees certainly well executed and well produced (by some guy named Dan?) progressive metal tunes. The band follow some patterns with that other band I keep bringing up - predominately midpace songs with frequent stylistic shifts from clean to harsh or back. They will switch back and forth between clean vocals and growls just as quickly as the guitarist does likewise stomping on his distortion pedal. However in comparison to the other guys, Barren Earth seems more focused, structured, and with a slightly better understanding of that whole brevity thing.

The tracks on the album - well at least some - seem to have thematic styles/tones that help differentiate them from one another. "Passing Of The Crimson Shadows" has a recurring theme that reminds me of maybe trekking the deserts of Pakistan in some adventure flick based on the 40's, and "The Rain Begins" contains a swell riff that carries along with it.

While some of the songs might inspire visions of Sinbad or cracking a whip at a belligerent thuggee at a crowded marketplace, others such as "Vintage Warlords" might inspire thoughts of more widespread violence.

"As It Is Written", on the other hand, drives me nuts. I know keyboarders need to get laid too, but maybe dial it back a tad? The entire track is wrapped in some hopping looping key riff that tries to perhaps capture the frivolity of a banquet in the king's court or something? but succeeds in annoying me to no end. Fortunately the track is followed by "The Dead Exiles", which helps right the wrongs of the prior track with a far more sinister edge and "Oriental Pyre" where the guitarists show off their chops in a fretboard display designed to attract all the honeys who might have been scoping the dude tickling ivory.

All in all, I guess the proggy crowd will love this one and I can see why. It's not to my taste, but it has enough cool stuff going on that I get why others are really fired up about it. If you are into the more visceral or harsh stuff I review from time to time, this might be worth a youtube driveby but won't likely pass Tort on your "to buy" list.

Well, this is where all reviews end. Er, at least this one.