Denominate - Restoration - review
Denominate - Restoration - review
Tracklist
01. The Loathe Process02. Husk
03. Of Passing
04. Liminal
05. The Cistern
06. Restoration
A review by
musclassia February 05, 2026
This is the third full album from the Finnish progressive death metal band, coming 6 years after Isochron. They are a band that don’t give mere lip service to the ‘death’ part of that label, with some fierce dissodeath riffing, but they also incorporate the expansiveness, atmosphere and melodic elements commonly associated with extreme prog metal. With two records under their belt already, the band have the experience of blending extremity with beauty, and put it to good use on Restoration.
That dissonance is audible from the off; “The Loathe Process” opens with an ominous open riff that makes use of it, and brings it back multiple times throughout the track in exchange with tasty arpeggiated riffs. However, brief clean proggy snippets early on are eventually followed by a remarkably triumphant melodic solo around the 3-minute mark; it’s a sudden shift, but ultimately enjoyable, as are the tapping motifs and post-rock layers that come later. The track, like a couple others on the record, winds down the intensity from a late-song climax through to its final conclusion.
I noted a sudden mid-song change in the previous paragraph, and there are unexpected shifts across the album. Some work better than others, and next track “Husk” has one of the more whiplash-inducing. A bruising verse goes into the first clean-vocal section, and not only is it a jarring transition, but the clean vocals will likely be the most make-or-break element to listeners’ enjoyment of Restoration. There is an eeriness to them that borders on sounding off-pitch, and the tone is not the easiest to appreciate; that said, I find they work better in a doomy section that comes in at the end of the song’s solo.
Past the vocals, there’s some great instrumental features to the album; on top of the aforementioned dissonance, arpeggiating and more brutish riffing, there is impressive technicality (check out the winding dual-guitar parts on “Liminal”), as well as grander melody (parts of “Of Passing” remind me a tad of Borknagar). There are also softer sections during the album, and the acoustic/proggy segues (particularly on “Of Passing” and “Liminal”) are very clearly Opeth-inspired. These sections work well within the frames of the band’s other influences, as do the Fallujah vibes at the beginning of the closing title track.
The standout song on the record has its own seeming source of inspiration, however. Both the tapping guitar lines and the riffs during “The Cistern” sound reminiscent of Gojira, but the oscillating tapping, melodic solos, tremolo lines and strummed riffs all come together very satisfyingly during this track. The clean vocals in the verse again are a bit dubious in their execution, but aside from that there is nothing to complain about and plenty to enjoy about this song, which ebbs and flows in a well-paced manner.
There’s more to praise about the album, and also other segments and transitions that aren’t quite as successful, but if a progressive death metal album with dissonance alongside melody and influences from the aforementioned bands sounds good to you, Restoration is well worth a moment of your time, even if the vocals may take some getting used to.
Written on 05.02.2026 by
Written on 05.02.2026 by
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