Band:	Council Of The Fallen
Album:	Deciphering The Soul
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	2004
A review by:	Deadsoulman

01. Intro
02. Longing For Clarity
03. Acceptance In Silence
04. No Vision Of Prophecy
05. Scourge Of Thy Enemy
06. Distant Memories
07. Tempting Angelic Pride
08. Resurgence
09. Falling Through Decades
10. Repetition Breeds Insanity
11. Outro

Council Of The Fallen is an American band that brings a lot of promises even before the first listening. Tim Yung of Hate Eternal on the drums, produced by Erik Rutan, playing devastating death/black metal... I'd say it brings too many promises, because you're (well I was...) ecstatic when you put it in your CD player, but once it starts, everything collapses.

I won't say this is bad, actually there are a few good moments on Deciphering The Soul (the drums, the fact that these guys still know how to write music), but the problem is that everything sounds the same, there's not this little touch of originality that we call personality and that defines the thin line between a good album and an average one. Council Of The Fallen plays technical brutal death metal with black atmospheres, but it sounds like all this has already been done better by a good hundred bands. I think the problem of this album comes from the fact that there is no rhythm change, no catchy riff, in other words there is nothing that really grabs the attention.

And yet they try to make some (pathetic) efforts on some passages where they include clean vocals. But you know what? They are out of tune. That's a shame because the rest of the vocals is the only good point I can find, with the alternance of deep growls and black metal screams, but once again, this is all so overdone...

I won't go on and on over the reasons why I'm going to leave this album on a shelf and probably never open it again as soon as I finish this review. The only thing you have to know is that Deciphering The Soul could (and should) have been a good album. Unfortunately it's not. Maybe next time...

Highlights: Longing For Clarity (it's the first song, it sums up the whole album, plus it's the only one I remember even if I've listened to the album five minutes ago)