Band:	Damaste
Album:	The Crumbling Vaults Of The 5th Sun
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Darkside Momo

01. Flooded Kingdoms Of The Ice Age
02. Dreadful Deviancy
03. Carved In Stone
04. The Opalescent Path

Damaste are a young band from Italy, and The Crumbling Vaults Of The 5th Sun is their first demo. It features four songs for a bit more than twenty minutes. Not too long, nor too short.

They play some nice death metal. Well, that sounds a bit imprecise and reductive, so let's see... First off they have some thrashy riffs, and they sometimes use (sparingly) some hardcore breaks. And also, they've got a melodic side to them, expressed mostly in their soloing (before the pummelling starts again) and some riffs too.
Sure, this mix of styles and sounds doesn't sound that original, but Damaste already have an identity. No copycat here, no metalcore or deathcore either. It sometimes makes me feel like some Gothenburg melodeath, but with a real death metal sound and aggression. In that respect, they could be vaguely compared to Dylath-Leen (and more specifically to Semeion, their 2nd album).

So, Damaste proves with this demo that they know how to play their stuff: heavy, fast but not too much, technical and also hinting at different subgenres. Niburu, the vocalist is quite good, he has some nice variations on his grunts. He just maybe (maybe) needs to add more power sometimes.

The production is good, but not perfect, but that's the rule of the game with demos. In fact this is where the real problem lies, I think it is too massive, crushing some of the dynamics, which is a shame, really.

Finally, I'm a bit annoyed, because I tend to be kind with young bands, and so to overlook some mistakes... But I don't really find reproachs to do to these guys, as this was a nice listen.
Well, the next step will be to find a label and release a real album. But sure they have the potential to do it and evolve, as they already have the technical skills and energy!