Delta – Deny Humanity by reviewer Joan Lopez Duarte
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Delta – Deny Humanity
2010. Australis Records
01. Fatal Error
02. Over and Over Again
03. Revolution
04. Desire Within
05. Doors Keep Spinning
06. Perfect Insanity
07. Fragile
08. 2702
09. Virtual Life
10. God or Science
11. The Human Touch
This is the first time I sit down to type letters to create a review, so I don't have any guiding structure to follow. There's just one decision to be made… the album. And the chosen one is the fourth release of the chilean band Delta, ``Deny Humanity´´.
I warn in advance not be fooled by the cover artwork, because even when it relates to the topic that holds the LP, it is far from the quality on the CD.
And here the story begins...
I put the CD in my player, with all distractor item off or hidden, I sit on the couch in front of the speakers and then an enigmatic environment sound begins to surround me, it’s ``Fatal Error´´, intro track that plays its role fully to bring the world printed on the cover artwork and then listen: ``… Push the power button to turn on, Loading information to proceed, Fatal error virus has been found, operative system will shut down…´´
And it opens fire with the first song ``Over and Over Again´´, A powerful track with a superb chorus that get encrust on your skull easily, and it works as card of what’s coming in the album: flawless execution of musical instruments and outstanding sound. This is definitely a great opening.
The next track is ``Revolution´´, song with a groove that shows the band’s rhythm base. Here the drums takes the reins of the matter and a set of voices gives dynamism and intent to a very interesting lyrics that would work really well live.
``Desire Within´´ brings a drastic sound change. It begins with tribal drums and a synth that takes you to northeast before hitting you with a riff flavored Angra. Then it is filled with contretemps perfectly decorated by a ‘‘technological’’ keyboard (that gives the whole concept to the album). The song verses are commanded by the rhythm base, and towards the end of the track it’s guided by the keyboard strings.
``Doors Keep Spinning´´ is another high point of the album in every way, from start to finish. Its verses have a groove adorned in subtle and accurate, followed by an aggressive and sticky bridge that leads to an overwhelming set of voices in the chorus (and the lead vocals shows his great vocal range) perfect to be played live. Also, there’s an instrumental section with an inspirited guitar solo.
After a lyrics critical of the judicial system comes ``Perfect Insanity´´, definitely the most aggressive and darkest track of this release. Immediately it connects you to the cover artwork concept. The song has a dense and powerful chorus, and verses where the lead vocals demonstrates his interpretative capability. Despite the end of the song dilutes its power, Perfect Insanity is another high point of the album.
A complete change is what the next song brings. ``Fragile´´ lives up to its name and it results to be a delight to the ears. Its beginning immediately brings to mind the great Octavarium for few seconds, but then is invaded by a delicacy in which the bass guitar overflows feeling. All is harmony in here, and each one of the musicians turns into interpreter, especially the lead vocals which does a brilliant job.
So far everything has been amazing and have spent nearly 35 minutes of great compositions, which (strangely to the genre) are pretty direct, so the time flies easily. But something is missing… I’m starting to miss the instrumental passages that lend it a unique flavor to this musical style, but then, at the right time ``2702´´ (Date of the earthquake in Chile in early 2010) makes its arrival. It’s a beautiful instrumental piece loaded of Chilean folklore, which joins the virtuosity of Prog-Metal with the beauty of the Chilean cueca.
This inspired interlude gives way to ``Virtual Life´´, whose beginning is a little strange because it sounds like Japanese anime opening, but fortunately it takes a turn to become the most dynamic track on the album. It has excellent loops and rhythm changes, and also a beautiful female voice (May Schuster) that runs a really nice vocal duet, which is then joined by the rest of the band to make a game of choirs that reminds Mercury and company. As if that were not enough, towards the end, Delta leaves emerge neoclassical sound that characterized their previous albums.
The glimpses of the neoclassical sound of the band continue with ``God or Science´´, the most melodic track, with some Power-Prog elements, whose chorus reminds Vanden Plas. Despite not being a bad track, extends more than necessary without reaching the level of the previous songs.
After a brief silence the drums starts to sound. ``The Human Touch´´ is the track in charge of closing function. In the beginning it brings back that ``technological sound´´ of Deny Humanity, but after a few seconds it breaks down giving way to the classics… the sound of the keys of a piano accompanied by a melancholy voice, which soon turns left to bring back all the power of the band. Once Again it’s evident the ability of these guys to create good compositions with great chorus (made to work live).
In synthesis, The Human Touch is a good closing for the album, because, in addition to achieving capture all its sound, it manages to include the essence and theme of Deny Humanity.
Thus, Deny Humanity comes to an end, surrounded by silence again, look at my watch and I see that, without realizing, it has been almost one hour...
In conclusion, we face a great album (the best of the band), almost without lows and whose greatest weakness is not musical, but the visual, because the cover artwork does not really do it justice at all.
As I mentioned at the outset, the sound made by the production on this album is just brutal, making the job even more remarkable... definitely it deserves a place on the podium for best progressive album of 2010…
Maybe the only criticism that could be done lies in the lead vocals, but isn’t about his technical or interpretive quality (there's no doubt about it), but just for auditory liking. However, this would fall into the subjective and lose all validity.
Rating: 9.0
By Joan López Duarte
Keyboards y Theremin: Nicolás Quinteros
Lead Vocals: Felipe Del Valle
Guitars: Benjamín Lechuga
Bass guitar: Marcos Sánchez
Drums and percussions: Andrés Rojas
Producers: Javier Bassino and Benjamín Lechuga
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEncYi7HvYA&feature=related
On the website http://www.deltachile.com/ you can download for free the EP: Desire Within, which contains the tittle track and Doors Keep Spinning more 2 (fun) bonus tracks.