Since hearing a couple of years ago that former Distorted drummer Matan Shmoeli helped Aborted when they needed a session drummer in Israel, I’ve always assumed this Israeli foursome were an equally savage Deathgrind band. Well my assumptions led me completely off the trail and I was somewhat surprised when ‘Voices from Within’ arrived and turned out to be considerably tamer than their Belgian (French/English – Aborted are European these days, never mind Belgian) counterparts.
As ever the biography is slightly misleading, describing Distorted’s sound as the brutal side of Metal mixed with the refinement of oriental music. This is about as brutal as mid-paced Gothenburg Metal. On the whole the album is quite mellow, as you would expect from this genre, but features thrash beats and unusually fast double bass drumming. This definitely gives the music more of an adrenaline rush and works extremely well beside the dual vocal growls (of guitarist Raffy Mor) and the alluring feminine sounds of Miri Milman.
I don’t find the riffs on their own particularly memorable, but in the context of whole songs, Distorted have some wonderfully catchy and memorable moments; take for instance ‘Fading’, with its very melodic and groovy beginning, which quickly turns into a thrash-beat-driven growled passage and then into a gorgeously sung chorus. It’s parts like these which Distorted really excel at producing and for once I’m going to describe something as uplifting. I don’t think I’ve used that word to describe any of my CDs since I bought Within Temptation’s ‘Mother Earth’ years ago.
The beginning of ‘Reveal my Path’ may as well have been written by a Gothenburg band, but fortunately (for my sanity), improves drastically, with a slower chugged section, again with joint growling, singing and even Aborted’s Sven with his more Hardcore tinged vocals. The adrenaline dies down for a while and soon we’re swimming in a sea of mild melody and gently sung vocals. They swing their priorities around again though and finish with a more savage moment (don’t take that too literally), Sven having the last words of the song.
‘Escape the Mind-Grid’ relies on rhythmic slab-like chords and chugs which are easily pierced by Milman’s soaring voice. There is a classiness to this approach that I haven’t heard in this genre for a while and the growls just add even more grace to her lovely vocals.
Distorted are an interesting acquisition to Candlelight’s roster and I’m interested in seeing how far they develop their sound. Perhaps I’m just obsessed with fast drumming, but I’d like to hear Miri sing over some blast-beats and have them justify the ‘brutal’ description in their biography!
http://www.myspace.com/distortedband
http://www.candlelightrecords.co.uk
