Antares is a class M supergiant star with a radius 800 times that of our sun and it is also one of the brightest stars often seen in the night sky (well unless you live in a city where pollution means you rarely see jack shit anymore). The thought of a predator coming from there is scary stuff for those of us who watch too much apocalyptic sci-fi. Also if it looks anything like the cover of this album suggests we would certainly be in the shit. I did note the robotic head of this thing and that there is a track called Mark 13 so obviously this lot like Richard Stanley’s excellent ‘Hardware,’ but what of the music, is it a case of no flesh shall be spared?
On paper this was certainly interesting. The band comprises of members of Eurovision song contest failures (sorry could not resist that dig) Keep Of Kalessin, Harm, Belphegor and Absentia Lunae amongst others. This is a mix of black and death metal with a futuristic feel to it. I do not mean that it goes cyber or industrial as such it is more to do with the particularly cold and spitefully thorn laden guitar tones from KoK man Warach, which to me are the highlight of this album. As we pile into ‘Downfall’ these literally puncture you with their spiky tumult and the drum play is also fast and furious. However my downfall as far as everything is concerned is singer Steffan Schulze (Harm, Scarot). He has a mid range rasping delivery and his vocals have failed to grow on me despite repeated listens. They just don’t seem to fit in with what I would expect from the sound and the raging instrumentation and don’t really strike as death or black metal style and, dare I say it, sound at times like he would be better suited to a deathcore band.
Musically I quite like this although it has not exactly blown me away. I keep picking out bits here and there of other bands, recent DHG, Thorns and a dash of now defunct Zyklon all spring to mind from the heady maelstrom of tracks such as the oddly titled ‘BBQ Epilogue,’ which also has a nice groove in the slow downed moments. I guess it was not possible to ignore certain winged fantasy creatures considering the Keep connection and I was also amused to note a song ‘As Dragons Roam The Sky.’ There is a pretty neat synth line which crops up in this one but quietly in the background and the use of keyboards on the album is certainly subtle rather than overbearing, meaning this is not the symphonic sprawl it could have so easily been.
There is a fair bit I do like about this and the band have some good ideas and the musicianship is well handled. I still cannot shrug off the feeling that I would have enjoyed this more with a different singer though and for that reason I am stuck on the fence with this one really. Perhaps in the future this band may yet come back and terminate and I am will be happy to eat my words.
http://www.myspace.com/antarespredator
