Ephel Duath — The Painter's Palette
After nearly a year of hard work, the band returns with The Painter’s Palette. The new line-up is quite different, but makes a lot of sense after you hear the music on the album. Davide Piovesan is the new drummer. He is a 47-year-old percussion instrument and polyrhythmic teacher with a jazz/blues background. The new bass player is Fabio Fecchio and comes from the prog/fusion scene. The melodic- and exteme vocals come from Davide Tiso and Lucio Lorusso. The latter coming from the hardcore/noise scene. Original member Davide remains the band's only guitarist. So the band has quite a diverse mixture of different characters and backgrounds, which shows on the album.
I'm sure The Painter's Palette could've become a fiasco if the members weren't so determined to make a different, but excellent album, with good songs on it. The overabundance of bizarre jazzy rythms could've ruined the music, but the band didn't only focus on the 'weirding' of their music. They knew the songs had to make sense. And well, they make a lot of sense. All nine tracks are excellent and a pleasure to listen to. The music is a mixture of extreme (math) metal, hardcore, jazz, with a Jeff Buckley fan on vocals. They also use a trumpet on a couple of tracks, but not a lot. I would actually like to hear more use of the trumpet in the music, which is the only small drawback on the album for me.
The change from melodic black-metal outfit to jazzy math-metal is incredible. The band never impressed me much with their previous releases, but The Painter's Palette is a totally different experience. Part of this is the result of attracting three new members, all of them with a different music background. The blending of genres is done perfectly and the band really adds something fresh to the metal scene.
Cynic did jazz-metal in the 90's and Ephel Duath do their version in the 00's. Both acts are quite different from eachother, but at one point Ephel Duath might get the same status and recognition as their predessor. The Painter's Palette is an excellent and challenging metal album. Be sure to get it if you like to hear something refreshing.