Band:	Valediction
Album:	The Primitive Architecture
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	February 2011

01. Descent
02. Moment Of Decay
03. The Primitive Architecture
04. Transcendent
05. Dead Zone
06. Siege Of Dis
07. The Bleeding Tower
08. Above The Horizon
09. Damned
10. The Nights Eye
11. Requiem

I'll cut straight to the point, Valediction is an Irish melodic death metal outfit, and they sound way too much like a mix of early Omnium Gatherum and Mors Principium Est. The cheese factor is cranked up pretty high here thanks to the overall synth abuse - a la Eternal Tears Of Sorrow - and the amateurish growls really detract from the album's tolerance.

As is typical of modern melodeath albums, The Primitive Architecture features some genuinely enjoyable melodies, but the riff-focused song structures are predictable and in the end not overly enjoyable. It suffers terribly from the "not good, not bad" complex; although, these qualities aren't the worst thing to appear in a debut album.

One thing the band deserves credit for is their ability to change pace not only between tracks, but between riffs within each track. Some might consider it a matter of inconsistency, but I think this is probably the album's most significant - or for that matter, only - strength. The variation has the ability to maintain your interest more so than a completely generic melodeath album, as it takes you through melodic anthems and headbanging mosh pits, but the cheese factor and grating vocals still take too much away from this release for it to be considered in any way a completely pleasant experience.

If you like your metal with a ton of melody, a hint of darkness, and you have the ability to overlookignore a vocalist, Valediction are worth keeping an eye on, and there's rarely a better place to start with a band than a debut.


MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/valedictionireland