Earth - Star Condemn'd

*=Staff's pick	Prophecy Of Destiny Earth* Star Condemn'd* A Voice Is Heard To Sink Or Soar Of This Spell* Endless Winter Children Of The Dead

Genre	Death Metal	Bren	Vocals
Tracks	8	Chris	Guitar
Runningtime	45 Min.	Rik	Guitar
Label	Iron Fist Productions	Dan	Bass
Release	01 Sept. 2004	Rob	Drums
Country	Australia	Rachel	Keyboards
Similar artists	Entombed, Dismember, Mortification

Swedish death metal from Australia, with a vegan behind the drums, anyone? This is actually Earth's five years old debut album, although not released until now, due to economical difficulties. This is classical death metal, with enough melody to attract my attention. The female group member Rachel (the band members are secretive about their last names), does a good job to make the keyboard float into the music and actually enhance the whole sound, something that a few Finnish guys should learn from…

I must confess that I belong to those who think that death metal can be quite monotone and even boring during the length of a CD. But Earth manages to keep my interest during the whole record. A remarkable variation in tempo and compositions, without those pretentious progressive (=dull) parts that so many self-important musicians fall into. The production is slightly overdone though. You can tell that this is a clean studio product. The sound is massive! In spite of that, the level of aggressiveness is more than acceptable.

The melodic guitar riffs makes this more than just brutal noise. Listen to the magical track Of This Spell! Bren's vocals are mostly standard growls, but, if that is possible to distinguish at all, among the better I've heard of that kind. Sounds very promising, and not too different from my personal Australian favorites, Mortification, although with a bit less prominent bass guitar. This is a band I will keep my eyes and ears on in the future.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
6	7	8

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - David