Band:	Metherrra
Album:	World Of Discord
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	2010
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. With Our Eyes Shut Blindly We Aim For The Next In Line
02. He Who Devours Our Land
03. Thou Whore of This Haven
04. This Oblivion Gate
05. World of Discord
06. Aftermath

With their 2010 demo, World Of Discord, exhibit a willingness to go beyond straightforward death metal and allow exterior influences, primarily black, to seep into their music.

Opening the release is the awesomely titled "With Our Eyes Shut Blindly We Aim For The Next In Line" which contains within itself some pounding blast beats, subsonic cookie monster growls, tremolo riffing, melodic lines, a nice little lead, and some doubled vocals which add a black metal rasp alongside the growls. Oh, and there is even a Garm-esq monkish vocal approach thrown in for good measure. All in all, it somehow works as the song shifts tempos, riffing styles, and vocals... they don't sit on anything long enough to let it get stale. It's the strongest track on the album, by virtue of it's unwillingness to stick to any specific formula.

There are plenty of cool riffs to be found on the other four proper tracks of the release, although none of the subsequent tunes are as cool as "With Our Eyes Shut Blindly We Aim For The Next In Line." Granted, I could have referred to the opener as, well, "the opening track" in that previous sentence, but with a name as cool as "With Our Eyes Shut Blindly We Aim For The Next In Line" I want to toss it around the review a couple times. Besides being fun to say, it also boosts the word count a bit. That's win-win.

While "He Who Devours Our Land" takes a more orthodox route, the next track "Thou Whore Of This Haven" incorporates a nice slow section which incorporates more of those monkish/Garm-like vocals and a nice melodic lead. Good call by the band, as breaking up the tempo with a section like that helps distinguish the song and the occasional quieter bits provide a nice respite before the audio battery resumes.

And resume it does, as the next two tracks are more of the same modern-style death metal as found in "He Who Devours Our Land", before the album closes out with "Aftermath", a somber affair featuring the sounds of a crackling fire (a church, perhaps? Hopefully not the intent, as that's been done) slow melodic lead, and somber vocals.

One of my biggest beefs with World Of Discord is that the drumming, notably the bass drum - which is kinda important in a genre with lots of blasturbation - sound heavily processed and lack real punch. At times during some of the fast paced songs, I found that the bass drums reminded me of the sound I hear when I run over those little bumps on the dividing line in the road... the ones designed to alert you you are veering into the other lane. I think death metal drumming, especially during thundering double bass segments, should remind me of a heavy sack beating rather than the "Oh shit!" sound one hears after nodding off at the wheel.

That aside, I think this shows some potential, particularly when Metherra find themselves outside the constraints of typical modern death metal. The tracks that best stood out are the ones that were a bit off the well trodden path.

P.S. One more time for good measure... "With Our Eyes Shut Blindly We Aim For The Next in Line."